


Amongst the Stars

by alchemicink



Category: Hey! Say! JUMP
Genre: #KeitosHardLife, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Star Trek Fusion, Crack, Gen, Humor, IN SPACE!, M/M, Space Shenanigans, You don't need to be familiar with Star Trek to read this, the romance isn't the main part of the story
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-10
Updated: 2016-08-10
Packaged: 2018-07-24 06:54:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 27,208
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7498482
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alchemicink/pseuds/alchemicink
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <em>Space: the final frontier</em>
</p><p> </p><p><em>These are the voyages of the starship</em> Heisei. <em>It's continuing mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no one has gone before.</em></p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Episode 1: Security Drill

**Author's Note:**

> Welcome to my fic for the Primordium 2016 challenge! It's been a long crazy ride where I changed my story idea 4 different times, so I'm honestly amazed I even managed to finish this. What I present to you is something I've been wanting to write for a long time: a story playing with typical sci-fi tropes. I've set the story in the Star Trek universe (with some heavy borrowing in particular from [Star Trek: Voyager](http://memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/Star_Trek%3A_Voyager/)), but you don't need to be familiar with Star Trek in order to enjoy the story. I've added information and links about terms you might be unfamiliar with at the beginning of each chapter. And at the end of each chapter, I'll list what inspired the episode idea. If you have any questions, fell free to ask! ^_^
> 
> I hope you all enjoy this! I'm sorry for such a long note at the beginning ^_^;;

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's a quick rundown of everybody's rank and position on the ship:  
> Nakajima Yuto, Captain  
> Yamada Ryosuke, Commander  
> Yaotome Hikaru, Lieutenant Commander, helmsman  
> Arioka Daiki, Lieutenant, chief engineer  
> Inoo Kei, Lieutenant, chief of security/sometimes the cook  
> Chinen Yuri, Lieutenant, science officer  
> Yabu Kota, doctor ([emergency medical hologram](http://memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/Emergency_Medical_Holographic_program/))  
> Okamoto Keito, Ensign, communications officer  
> Takaki Yuya, crewman, science assistant
> 
> Star Trek terms that pop up: **Alpha Quadrant** , the part of space they live in; **the Federation** , a collective of planets and peoples who all work together; **Starfleet** , the people who protect the Federation and explore space; **phaser** , a common handheld weapon; **turbolift** , a fancy name for an elevator; **warp core** , the kind of engine they use to travel faster than light; **tricorder** , a handheld scanner
> 
> If you want to learn more about the Star Trek universe, you can check out all these things (and more) over at [Memory Alpha](http://memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/Portal:Main/)

_First Officer’s Log: Stardate 2380.40  
Things have been going exceptionally well today. Nothing has exploded or malfunctioned, no one has food poisoning from today’s lunch yet, and everyone reported for their shift on time. All is well and quiet in this part of the Alpha Quadrant for the crew of the_ Heisei. _There’s really not much to report._

A loud clanging sound echoing across the bridge interrupted Yamada Ryosuke from adding anything else to his log. To his right, Yuto jumped up out of his seat with a startled exclamation of “I wasn’t sleeping!” Yamada didn’t know who the captain was trying to fool though because he was pretty sure everyone had heard the snores.

“Security drill!” Inoo called out. Yamada turned to see the chief of security proudly banging a gong—a gong?!—at his station to get everyone’s attention. 

_First Officer’s Log: Supplemental  
Remember to check the regulations later for protocol concerning musical instruments on the bridge._

“We don’t need a security drill,” Yamada said. “We’re busy.” Of course, he was stretching the truth a bit. They were so _not_ busy that Hikaru had put the ship on autopilot and had been playing a handheld tetris game at the helm for the last three hours. 

“But what if the ship gets invaded by a hostile life-form intent on gruesomely murdering us?” Inoo asked. 

Yamada resisted the urge to roll his eyes when Yuto nodded in agreement. “I don’t want us to be gruesomely murdered,” Yuto declared. “Or any other unpleasant kind of murdering, to be honest. We’ve got time for a security drill. Everybody, man your battle stations!” Yuto commanded in his most captain-like voice while dramatically pointing in the distance like he was posing in a movie instead of captaining a Federation starship.

“…we _are_ at battle stations,” Keito quietly said from his communications post nearby. 

Inoo waved his hand as he stowed the gong away now that he had everyone’s attention. “Don’t worry about that. I have a whole scenario planned out for us. Everyone needs to be scattered around the ship.”

“I’ll be in astrometrics then,” Chinen said and then rapidly disappeared from his science station on the bridge without giving anyone a chance to argue. 

Inoo just shrugged. “Keito can hang out in the mess hall and Hikaru in the transporter room,” he directed, “and I’ll play the part of the intruder. Somebody let the others know. I’ll start in engineering and see if I can work my way here. You guys have to try and stop me.” He grinned and then exited by the turbolift the same way Chinen had. 

Now it was just Yuto and Yamada left on the bridge. The captain sent messages to the rest of the crew while Yamada just plopped back into his seat. 

_First Officer’s Log: Supplemental  
I guess when you’re on a deep space exploration mission, you’ve got to find something to do on boring days._

***

When he walked into the astrometrics lab, Chinen wasn’t surprised to see Takaki Yuya sleeping with his body slumped over on top of a console. He jabbed his finger into his sleeping assistant’s shoulder who then woke up with a startled yelp. 

“You’re supposed to be examining star charts,” Chinen said. 

“I was!” Takaki answered. He wiped the drool off the console and then brushed a few stray strands of hair out of his face as he stood up and stretched. 

“The only thing you were examining was the inside of your eyelids,” Chinen laughed. He probably should reprimand Takaki, but well, even the captain had been sleeping earlier. And besides, Chinen had come down here to escape the security drill and continue his work. 

“Do me a favor and stand by the door,” Chinen directed as he sat down in Takaki’s recently vacated seat. “And if Inoo comes in, kick him.” 

Takaki positioned himself in front of the doors. “Okay but why?” 

Chinen quickly explained the security drill situation but ignored any further questions from Takaki. On the bridge earlier, he had noticed a weird blip on his scans but Inoo had interrupted with his security drill before he could investigate it. It could be a computer malfunction or it could be something to worry about. He wasn’t going to dismiss it until he knew for sure what it was. In the meantime, he was pretty sure Takaki could handle anything Inoo threw at him during the drill. From the corner of his eye, he could see Takaki holding a position with his legs spread wide and bent at the knees, arms stretched forward like he might tackle Inoo as soon as he walked through the door. 

But Chinen could laugh about that possibility later. Right now he had to figure out that mysterious blip. 

***

Keito decided on eating some leftover soup since he had no idea how long he’d be stuck in the mess hall. He swirled the steaming mixture around with his spoon before savoring the first bite. But before the soup even had a chance to cool off, Inoo burst into the room wearing a fake mustache and carrying a deactivated phaser rifle. Keito blinked and said hi. 

“You don’t say _hi_ to an intruder,” Inoo scolded him. “I’m a hostile enemy. What do you do?” 

“Uh…” Keito glanced around. “Throw hot soup on you?”

Inoo looked offended. “What? That’s a waste of good soup. I made that soup.” 

“Why would the intruder have soup he made in our kitchen?” 

For a moment Inoo spluttered as he realized he’d accidentally broken character. “Forget the soup. I’m taking you hostage.” 

“But what if I threw the soup on you? Hypothetically,” Keito complained in a last-ditch effort to save himself, even as Inoo took the soup away. 

“Too late,” Inoo answered and put the soup back in the kitchen. “As my hostage, show me how to get to the engine room.” 

Keito sighed as Inoo’s fingers curled around his wrist, already dragging him in the direction of the turbolift. It was just his luck that he’d end up being the hostage, of course. He never had the opportunity to just sit down and eat soup in peace. Stubbornly, he guided Inoo towards engineering while mostly ignoring the security officer’s chastising comments about how to properly react to a hostage situation. 

“I like your mustache,” Daiki said as soon as Inoo and Keito walked into the engine room. Inoo proudly patted his faux facial hair at the compliment until he abruptly frowned, remembering that he was supposed to be doing. “Hey! I have a hostage. None of you are any good at roleplaying. It’s a good thing someone isn’t actually invading the ship.” 

“But what if I was trying to distract you so Keito could escape?” Daiki shot back. 

Keito paused as he was trying to inch away towards the door. “Dammit,” he cursed under his breath as Inoo grabbed his arm again. 

“It didn’t work,” Inoo declared loudly. “Next time tell me I have pretty eyes too and _maybe_ you just might get lucky. Now,” he gestured towards Keito who was just frowning with resignation, “I have a hostage. What do you do?” 

“Hmm…” Daiki tapped his chin. “Save the hostage? Or protect the warp core? Try to incapacitate the threat? Or just distract him? Or run away? Ugh, there are too many choices. I can’t decide.” 

“Bang,” Inoo said and lazily pointed his finger at Daiki. He didn’t even bother pulling out the phaser rifle. “Too late. Now you’re dead and I have control of the engine room.” He pretended to press the console buttons to shut down the engine, all while laughing maniacally. 

“How do you know the codes to shut down the warp core?” Daiki asked. 

Inoo abruptly stopped laughing, and then stroked his mustache as he tried to think of a good answer. “Uh… dead bodies don’t talk so shush,” he deflected the question. 

Daiki shrugged and then picked a spot on the floor to lie down. “Since I’m dead, I’ll just hang out down here until the drill is over.” He started on his back, but then rolled to his side to get more comfortable. But a second later, he rolled again to another spot. Inoo and Keito watched him with vaguely concerned looks as Daiki continued to toss and turn. 

Finally Inoo just shrugged. “Take me to the bridge,” he commanded Keito. 

“This isn’t teaching us anything about security at all,” Keito muttered under his breath. 

***

To be honest, the only person more excited than Inoo about the security drill was Yabu because he liked a change in routine. As the emergency medical hologram, he couldn’t really go anywhere other than sickbay and when everyone was in good health, it got boring just looking at the gray walls in between his medical research. But _this_ was exciting. He paced around sickbay while he contemplated all his possibilities.

“The probability of success is highest if I try to render him unconscious,” he muttered out loud as he passed by his stash of medical supplies. “But I won’t know how any of the drugs will affect alien physiology. Hmm… perhaps the first step is to run a quick bio-scan. Maybe I can use my psychoanalytical skills to distract him while the scan is running.” He tapped his foot as he calculated his odds of success. He didn’t _need_ to tap his foot, but he’d programmed all sorts of human quirks into his system to better help put his patients at ease. 

Just as he was about to select a plan of action, Yabu detected a strange buzzing sound from somewhere behind him. He turned to see a mass of… what was that? It looked like a cloud full of sparking electricity. He took a step forward to get a better look, but the energy mass suddenly jolted forward and then dove into his main console, disappearing into the circuitry. 

“Well that’s probably not goo—”

And that’s when Yabu’s program flickered and then deactivated. 

***

It was quiet on the bridge again now that Yamada and Yuto were the only ones left. Yuto focused on Hikaru’s tetris game he’d left behind while Yamada tried to catch up on reports. But he caught himself watching Yuto’s game more often than he’d like to admit. 

“Yes!” Yuto exclaimed. He clenched his fists in victory and beamed at Yamada. “Beat another level. New high score!” After a short victory dance, he offered the game to Yamada.

He refused with a shake of his head. “We’re supposed to be working,” Yamada said. “Not letting Inoo play weird roleplaying games with the crew.” 

Yuto settled back down into his chair and leaned closer to Yamada, looking directly at him with suddenly serious eyes. “Yama-chan, you need to learn to loosen up sometimes. Throw caution to the wind and live a little. Laugh a lot and _then_ we can focus on the serious stuff.” Once he was done with his speech, Yuto gave him an endearing smile that Yamada knew was only reserved for him. 

The smile was almost enough for Yamada, but a nagging worry had settled into his stomach. “I understand,” he said, “but just remember that we’re on a deep-space exploration mission. We don’t have back-up to call if things go wrong. I just worry about the crew.” 

“That’s what makes you the best first officer a captain could have,” Yuto said, taking the opportunity to intertwine his fingers with Yamada’s while they were alone. 

“ _Lieutenant Chinen to all crew. Intruder alert!_ ” The familiar voice rang out over the comm system to interrupt the moment. “ _It’s in sickbay._ ” 

“We’re on our way,” Yuto acknowledged. He turned to Yamada. “Okay, now is the time to be serious. I don’t know what’s going on with Inoo’s security drill, but we’re going to find out.” 

Yamada checked to make sure he had his weapon as he followed Yuto to the turbolift. Now he understood why he had such a bad feeling.

_First Officer’s Log: Supplemental  
Shit just got real._

***

Chinen and Takaki were waiting for everyone outside of the closed sickbay doors. Chinen was frowning while Takaki kept shooting worried glances at the door, like whatever was inside might try to come out. 

“What’s the situation?” Yuto asked.

“Yeah, what about my security drill?” Inoo asked once he and Keito arrived. Hikaru and Daiki trailed behind just a few seconds later. 

Chinen’s furrowed brow looked out of place on his normally cheerful countenance. “I’ve been tracking a mysterious reading on the scanners since we started the drill. I thought it was a malfunction in the computer at first, but actually Takaki and I figured out that it’s an energy-based life form. It just infiltrated the ship a few minutes ago and I’ve tracked it here.” 

“Why sickbay?” Hikaru asked but Chinen just shrugged. 

“You should have told us sooner,” Yamada said, but Yuto shook his head. There would be time for scolding later after they’d assessed the threat to the ship. Takaki unlocked the door and they all cautiously went inside, weapons drawn just in case. 

“Yabu? Doc? You in here?” Yuto called out. But the hologram was nowhere to be seen. “You sure the intruder is in here?”

Chinen nodded. “It’s lurking in the computer system here according to my readings.” He gestured to his tricorder beeping with all sorts of information. Inoo stepped up to the console and tapped a few buttons to reactivate Yabu’s program. 

The tall hologram materialized but instead of his usual friendly hello, he greeted them with a blank stare. His eyes also held an unnatural glow which made him look even more ominous. And the most obvious clue that something was wrong were the streaks of sparking energy rolling off of his holographic body.

“It’s _in_ the EMH program,” Yamada said quietly, taking a subtle step forward so that he was in between the hologram and the captain. “What do we do?” They all turned to look at their security chief for guidance. 

For a second, Inoo did nothing as he assessed his options and then he finally spoke. “H-hello?” He took a step forward and held his hands out in a peaceful gesture. “We don’t mean any harm. My name is Inoo Kei. Can you speak?” 

“Leave,” it demanded harshly in a voice modulated a bit lower than Yabu’s usual one. “Get off my lawn, you meddling kids.” 

“…did it really just say…?” Hikaru asked with a scowl. “Is this a joke?” 

They turned to their communications officer for an answer. “I think,” Keito began, “maybe the life form is pulling phrases from our databases to communicate. I don’t know why it’s picking phrases a grumpy old man would say, but I guess it’s the best way to make his point.” 

“We’re just travelling through here,” Yuto explained slowly. “We didn’t mean to disturb you. Can we have our doctor back?” 

“No,” the voice answered harshly. “Leave. You cause problems.” 

Inoo turned to Yuto and quietly explained that Yabu’s program was probably the only way the alien had to communicate with them, but he didn’t know how to get it to listen. Before they could say anything else, Hikaru stepped up the console and quickly tried to type in some code to expel the creature. But he was hit with a large electrical shock that sent him flying backwards. He winced in pain while Daiki rushed to see if he was okay. 

“You kids cause problems. Get off our lawn. Leave,” the alien demanded while still wearing Yabu’s face. It was downright eerie to watch.

“Explain these problems,” Chinen spoke up to take charge of the situation. “Or we can’t help you.” 

Yabu’s head tilted to the side as if he was thinking of the best way to explain. In reality, the alien was probably searching the databases to figure out how to communicate better. The whole crew waited to see what he’d say. 

“Engines,” it finally spoke. “Your warp engines cause… interference. And… pain.” 

“Oh,” Yuto nodded. “That’s why you want us to leave. If that’s the case, we will happily shut down the warp core and travel on thrusters only. We really didn’t mean to cause any harm. Please accept our apologies.” He bowed deeply towards the alien to show his sincerity, but the alien didn’t seem to fully understand the gesture. Instead it was silent as it contemplated the offer. 

“Acceptable,” it answered. 

Yuto nodded. “Okay then, guys, let’s get to work. Daiki, go shut the warp core down. Inoo, take care of Hikaru. Chinen, I’m going to need you to plot a course out of this area, and Yamada, you’ll fly the ship.” He turned back to the alien. “We’ll leave a warning beacon behind so that anyone else passing through will know not to bother you.”

The alien nodded with Yabu’s head which still looked rather creepy. The crew scattered as they went to work and it wasn’t long before they were far enough away from the alien’s “lawn.” Once they were distant enough, Yabu’s program deactivated again and the mass of energy rose up from the console and then shot out through the wall, disappearing from sight. 

“Is it gone?” Takaki asked.

“Yep,” Chinen said, checking the scans again. “It’s left the ship and is heading back home now.” He tapped the console to bring Yabu back again while the rest of the crew gathered back in sickbay again to talk. 

Yabu materialized with his usual bright smile. “Hello? How can I help you?” The smile slipped away as soon as he noticed that Hikaru was hurt. He grabbed his medical supplies to treat the electrical burns. “What did I miss?” 

“You don’t remember being held hostage?” Keito asked. 

“No, but it sounds exciting,” Yabu looked unconcerned about the hostage ordeal. “Did I miss the whole security drill?” 

Yamada scowled. “Well it’s not like it did us much good,” he said and looked at Inoo. 

The security officer was unapologetic as always. “It’s best to be prepared for any situation. You never know what will happen. You guys all suck at security drills anyway.” He took off his fake mustache and stuck it in his pocket. “We’ll practice again next week maybe.” 

“By the way, Hikaru,” Yuto began, “I beat your high score in tetris.” 

“You what?!” Hikaru tried to get up but Yabu forced him to lie back down as he continued treatment. “Captain, you’re the worst.” 

“I know,” Yuto grinned and disappeared out the door to head back to the bridge. 

Yamada massaged his temples as a headache started to form. “Get back to work,” he commanded, shooing them all away. 

_First Officer’s Log: Supplemental  
We made it through the invasion and hostage situation just fine, although Inoo’s security drill was mostly ineffectual. But there’s no point in dwelling on that. I guess the lesson I learned today is to never say there’s nothing interesting to report…_


	2. Episode 2: 20,000 Leagues in the Nebula

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This episode really has nothing to do with _20,000 Leagues Under the Sea_ despite the title. LOL 
> 
> Star Trek terms in this chapter: **[Starfleet Academy](http://memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/Starfleet_Academy/)** , the place where everyone trained to join Starfleet

Hikaru was pretty sure there was something wrong with Yuto’s butt. There just _had_ to be. He shifted again in the captain’s chair, noting how lumpy the cushion was. Seriously, _how_ did it even get like that? Finally, he just stood up. It was his turn to take command of the bridge while the captain and the commander were off duty, but that didn’t mean he had to sit in Yuto’s chair the whole time. He walked over to Keito’s station, watching him quietly tap at the console with his headphones on. 

“Anything exciting?” he asked, leaning over Keito’s shoulder for a better look. But the information didn’t make any sense to him. Hikaru had never studied communications at Starfleet Academy. All he’d ever cared about was being a pilot. 

Keito removed his headphones and sighed. “Not a lot of inhabited planets in this region, so nothing exciting at all.” 

Hikaru frowned and turned to the only other officer on bridge duty. “What about you, Chinen? Anything to report?” 

“I didn’t have anything to report when you asked me five minutes ago,” he answered. Hikaru narrowed his eyes because Chinen wasn’t even looking at his console. He was reading a book. 

Hikaru sat back down. Nope, the captain’s chair was still really uncomfortable. “So…” he began and walked over to Chinen to interrupt his reading. “Are you _really_ sure there’s nothing out there?” 

Chinen leaned away without ever taking his eyes off the pages of his book. “Takaki’s in astrometrics. He’ll let us know if there’s anything.” 

Hikaru scoffed. “I don’t think Takaki would recognize something interesting if it was staring him in the face.” 

Now Chinen did tear his attention away from his book, and even Keito gave Hikaru a nasty glance from across the room. “Just because you don’t like my assistant,” Chinen said, “doesn’t mean you can insult him all the time.” 

“Sorry,” Hikaru muttered and crossed the bridge to take his usual seat at the helm instead. They were on autopilot, but he felt more comfortable here anyway. He scratched his chin as he tried to think of a different, less-touchy conversation topic. “What do you think Yuto and Yamada do when they’re not on duty?” he mused out loud to change the subject. 

“Probably each other,” Chinen said under his breath. Keito laughed and then quickly covered it up with a cough and turned his attention back to his station. Hikaru rolled his eyes. The whole crew had been talking secretly about if Yuto and Yamada would start dating for months now. They’d all agreed that the two of them were perfect for each other but they were probably too stubborn to admit it. 

“ _Hey Chii_ ,” Takaki’s voice came through on the comm system. “ _I found a nebula._ ” Hikaru wanted to roll his eyes at his cheerful-sounding voice.

“Cool,” Chinen replied, putting his book away. “Send me the information.” Chinen’s fingers moved expertly across his console as he pulled up the scan of the nebula on the big viewscreen. It looked like a bright colorful spot amongst the darkness of space. A massive swirl of orange and red twisting together in a beautiful array. 

Hikaru checked the coordinates against their current course and saw that it wasn’t too far out of the way. “Let’s go check it out. We are explorers after all.” 

“Shouldn’t we tell the captain?” Keito asked. 

“No need to bother him,” Chinen answered. “We’re going right by there anyway. We’ll just run some scans and then hop back on course.” 

“Sounds like a plan,” Hikaru said, already piloting the ship towards the space phenomenon. 

*** 

“You’re in a good mood,” Yuto said. His foot had fallen asleep from their position on his couch but he was too comfortable just cuddling with Yamada to move. “You haven’t mentioned breaking Starfleet regulations at all yet.” 

"Too full from dinner,” Yamada muttered with his eyes closed. “Probably going to fall asleep.” 

“How were my cooking skills?” Yuto asked after he pressed a light kiss on the back of Yamada’s head. 

Yamada chuckled. “Yes, you’re very good at programming the replicator to give you whatever you want.” Then he cracked his eyes open, looking a bit more serious. “But yeah, I’m pretty sure we’re still breaking some sort of rule by being together. Conflict of interest, chain of command, and all that stuff.” 

“And yet, here you are once again: in my quarters, falling asleep in my arms.” Yuto was teasing but he knew Yamada was probably right about their relationship. If they got too close, they didn’t know how much that could negatively affect their ability to command the ship, especially in dangerous situations. But damn, he just couldn’t let go. 

“Last time I was here, _you_ fell asleep in _my_ arms,” Yamada shot back with a laugh, which Yuto returned wholeheartedly because it was true. Sorta embarrassing, but true. 

“Shut up and go to sleep,” Yuto said. He was sure Hikaru and the rest of the night shift could handle anything that came up while they were off duty for the next few hours. 

*** 

“These are the strangest readings for a nebula I’ve ever seen.” 

Hikaru watched Chinen frown over his data, but he had to admit he was intrigued with the statement. There wasn’t usually anything weird about a collection of colorful gas out in space, but that’s why Starfleet had sent them out to this part of the Alpha Quadrant. If there were strange things out here, they needed to look into them, find out as much as they could. 

“Can you get us closer? Maybe collect a sample?” Chinen asked. His book lay long forgotten at his side as he focused on this puzzle to solve. His fingers were moving so fast over the console, they just looked like a blur to Hikaru. 

Hikaru charted a course and took their starship closer to the nebula. Once they were up close, he was even more mesmerized by the swirl of colors. Chinen was right that this nebula was strange. It was denser and more compact than the ones they usually encountered, and the colors seemed to get darker, the deeper they went towards the inside. 

“Would it be better if I got a sample from inside here?” Hikaru asked, mostly out of courtesy since he’d already flown the ship deep into the heart of the nebula. 

“That would be great,” Chinen replied. “Send the sample to Takaki in astrometrics.” 

Hikaru bit back the retort that had risen up in his throat and did what Chinen had asked. He wasn’t sure what Takaki would be able to do with the sample, but he wasn’t going to argue again. No matter how he felt about his crewmate, he could admit that Chinen and Takaki worked best together. 

“Ouch,” Keito exclaimed from his own workstation. Hikaru saw him toss his headphones off with a wince and grab his ears. 

“Are you okay?” he and Chinen asked at the same time. 

“There’s some sort of weird feedback or an echo or something,” Keito explained. He cautiously held his headphones back up to see if the noise was gone, but then winced again. “I’m going to run a computer diagnostic.” 

Chinen walked over to Keito’s station to examine his data. “Do you think it’s related to the nebula?” 

“What kind of noise does a nebula make?” Hikaru answered. “It’s just a bunch of gas, isn’t it?” There was an echoing silence as Chinen didn’t answer. _“Isn’t it?”_

“I… don’t think this is an ordinary nebula,” Chinen answered, rapidly rushing back to his station. “But we’re going to figure it out.” 

*** 

Takaki double and triple checked his scans but he kept coming up with the same results. And those results didn’t make any sense. He scratched his head and leaned forward to peer at the sample of swirling nebula gas in the container he had. It _looked_ normal but the computer was definitely telling him it was alive. How could a nebula be _alive?_

Maybe he should ask the doctor. 

It wasn’t a long walk to sickbay but carrying the container did slow him down a bit. He didn’t know what would happen if he dropped it and let the gas escape, but he’d probably be on the receiving end of several lectures from Yamada and lots of sneers from Hikaru. 

Yabu was at his office desk when Takaki walked in. He gingerly placed the container on the counter. 

“Whatcha got there?” Yabu asked, poking his head out of his office. 

Takaki knew that Yabu would be able to figure it out. The hologram was always really good at that sort of thing, and he never minded being bothered. “It’s _supposed_ to just be gas, but the scans say it’s alive. I wanted a second opinion.” 

“Let’s get to work then,” Yabu said as he pressed his face right up to the container and squinted his eyes. “We’ll figure it out.” 

Takaki watched Yabu work. He almost envied the way the doctor could move with such grace and precision without having to even think about his movements. He just did what he had to do and moved on. Takaki, on the other hand, felt like he was always fumbling around with every piece of tech he’d ever held in his hands. 

“Conclusion,” Yabu announced as he stepped away from his medical console. “This sample definitely came from a living creature. I think perhaps it looks like a nebula in disguise. Possibly to lure in unsuspecting prey? Where did you say you got it from again?” 

“Uh… the nebula we just flew into…” Takaki answered. 

Yabu’s eyes widened. “Oh. We should probably not stay in here too long. If we’re in the digestive track, some of this stuff might be corrosive to the ship’s hull.” 

Takaki nodded and ran out of sickbay with a copy of Yabu’s report. 

*** 

“What the hell?” Hikaru said for what was probably the fifth time as he read over Yabu’s report on the nebula creature. “You’re telling me that I flew the ship into the equivalent of a _space whale?_ You said this was a nebula,” he scolded Takaki. 

“Hey,” Chinen snapped. “It showed up as a nebula on my scans too. Don’t blame Takaki for this.” 

Hikaru could hear Keito quietly clear his throat over in the corner. “I think the weird noise I’m picking up might be the sound of… the creature’s stomach rumbling,” he explained. “I didn’t hear anything until we flew inside. Do you think we should call the captain now?” 

“No,” Chinen answered quickly. “The four of us can handle this. We’ve just got to fly out again.” 

The idea seemed simple enough but as Hikaru sat back down at the helm, he realized that charting a course out might not be that easy. They’d drifted deeper inside and there was interference on his scanners. In every direction he looked, the way out seemed to be through a maze of gases. And he didn’t dare fly through the dense parts now that Yabu had said they might be a danger to the ship. 

“You can do this, can’t you?” Chinen said to him. Hikaru didn’t turn around to meet his eyes. He couldn’t admit that he was worried. So he just nodded and said nothing. 

“Of course he can,” Keito answered for him, surprisingly. “Hikaru is the best pilot we have.” 

“You guys just monitor the shields and the nebula whale while I figure this out,” Hikaru finally said after taking a deep breath. He thought back to his training at the Academy. He tried not to be much of a rule-breaker but there was one time when he’d taken a shuttle for a joy ride. He made it all the way to the nearest asteroid belt and spent a few hours dodging rocks and doing the fanciest flight maneuvers he’d ever performed in his life. It had been wonderful. It had been the escape he needed during a rough time at the Academy. He’d gotten a month’s suspension when he returned the little shuttlecraft but he was proud that there wasn’t even a scratch on it. 

If he could just remember that feeling again of being completely confident and soaring through the asteroids. Their ship was bigger than a shuttle but he still knew how to carefully maneuver it around obstacles. And he had no choice. He’d flown them into this mess, so he had to get them out too. 

“Shields are down to 80%,” Takaki’s voice cut through the silence, reminding him that he didn’t have time to reminisce. 

Another deep breath and then he began to navigate out of the nebulous maze. 

*** 

Yuto was supposed to be paying attention to his cards, but he couldn’t help but focus on the messy spot of hair sticking up on the side of Yamada’s head. It was cute how Yamada hadn’t even noticed his disheveled appearance from the nap earlier because he was too focused on winning the card game. The strands of hair stuck out like they were a work of art sculpted that way. Yuto thought he could easily stare at Yamada for hours. Yeah, like a work of art. 

“Does it feel like the ship is flying strangely?” Yamada looked up from his hand. “Like we’re taking a lot of sharp turns?” 

A tiny laugh escaped Yuto’s lips. “That’s not an answer to my question about if you have any 7’s or not.” 

Yamada clicked his tongued and reluctantly handed Yuto a 7 of diamonds. “Fine. But seriously though, this feels rough.” 

“Hikaru’s probably just bored and messing around,” Yuto shrugged. “You know how it can be when there’s nothing to do. Plus I think I still have his tetris game. I wouldn’t worry about it.” He paused and smirked. “Are you just trying to distract me because you’re losing this game?” Half the fun of playing any game with Yamada was watching him get flustered if he wasn’t winning. 

“No,” Yamada pouted and looked at his cards again. “Any 3’s?” 

“Go fish.” 

Yamada sighed and dramatically threw his cards down on the table while Yuto just laughed. Even if they had to date in secret like this for now, these cute little dates were fun. 

*** 

“Shields down to 62%,” Takaki said from somewhere behind him, but Hikaru barely even noticed it. The nebula creature was like a labyrinth, constantly shifting and cutting off his way out. His fingers danced across the controls while he recalculated a different route out as the previous one lead to another dead end. He was starting to feel nervous, like maybe he would actually fail and they’d all die out here because of him. He could feel his hands start to shake. 

_No,_ Hikaru told himself. _No._ He had to get back on track. 

“I think we’re making some progress,” Keito said from his own station. “The noise isn’t as loud now.” 

And suddenly, a weird thought came to Hikaru. This was almost like a video game. Keito often visited Hikaru’s quarters to play old-school video games together. They spent hours and hours playing anything they could get their hands on, working tirelessly to beat all the levels. But it was always the most fun to find the shortcuts and the cheat codes. Like little surprises left behind to reward the eagle-eyed player. 

Maybe if he could think of this like a video game… All he had to do was find a shortcut. 

“You know what every whale has?” Hikaru said, suddenly feeling excited. 

“Wait, _what_??” Chinen exclaimed at the seemingly random statement. 

“A blow hole,” Hikaru answered his own question with a somewhat manic laugh. He had finally spotted their way out: a narrow gap leading up and away from the nebula monster. A _shortcut cheat code_. He entered the coordinates into the computer and navigated them into the small opening. It was going to be a tight squeeze. 

“Shields are down to 55%,” Takaki announced as the side of the ship grazed part of the nebula. But Hikaru tuned out the status report because one small slip of his hand could send them headfirst into the densest part of the nebula. He held his breath as he flew the ship the last few meters to freedom. 

“We’re out,” Chinen said. “Finally.” 

Hikaru breathed a sigh of relief and crumpled into his seat like a ragdoll. Now that the adrenaline was gone, he was feeling exhausted from the close call. 

“We’re out of _what_?” a new voice asked. Hikaru spun around to see both Yamada and Yuto standing on the bridge. Yamada had his hands on his hips while he gave all of them a stern glare. The captain on the other hand just looked curious. 

Keito whipped his headphones back on in a flash and stared intently at his station, pretending like he had been doing so the entire time. Takaki backed away from the console he was standing by and looked suddenly fascinated with the carpet. Chinen already had his nose buried in the book he’d been reading earlier. 

“We were exploring a nebula…” Hikaru began. “You know, because we explore things.” 

Yamada’s angry eyebrows didn’t move a millimeter. 

“And then the nebula turned out to be a giant space whale in disguise, but it’s okay because I just flew us out. Exploration over. Nothing else to report. Is my shift over already? Wow, look at the time. I’ll just be going then.” Hikaru hoped talking faster would distract them from the matter of taking the ship off course. He began to inch towards the turbolift. 

“Yeah, your shift is over,” Yamada said through gritted teeth. “And—” 

“ _I’ll_ let you know what your punishment is later,” Yuto interrupted, shooting a glance towards Yamada. “I appreciate the initiative but you all really should let us know what’s going on next time. Dismissed.” 

Yuto took his seat in the captain’s chair, but then hopped back up quickly. He pulled out Hikaru’s handheld tetris game from under the seat cushion before settling back down to start playing it. Hikaru almost said something but decided against it while Yamada was still glaring at him. 

Hikaru left the bridge feeling guilty about what they’d done, but he was also secretly proud of his piloting skills. Nobody could fly a ship as fancy as he could. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The "space whale" trope seems to pop up every now and then. This happened on Voyager twice in the episodes [The Cloud](http://memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/The_Cloud_\(episode\)/) and [Bliss](http://memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/Bliss_\(episode\)/). I've also seen a random episode of Farscape where their ship got swallowed by a "space whale" too. 
> 
> Space is a crazy, crazy place :D


	3. Episode 3: Quarantined

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I can't resist sticking my Christmas tree pairing everywhere now, even in non-romantic contexts :D
> 
> Important terms for this episode: **[Risa](http://memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/Risa/)** , the popular tourist planet with lots of beaches; **dilithium crystals** , an energy source to power the warp core; **[the Dominion War](http://memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/Dominion_War/)** , a war the Federation got involved with didn't turn out so well for anyone. The demilitarized zone was like a buffer between the two sides and the people living there got the worst of it.

Takaki looked at the screen and sighed, running both his hands over his face. When he opened his eyes again, the numbers on the screen hadn’t changed. Suddenly Chinen was at his shoulder, glancing at the screen too. 

“What’s wrong, Yuyan?” he asked. 

Takaki scowled. “I put all the calculations in wrong and I’m going to have to do this over. Sorry.” He reached for the console but Chinen just swatted his hand away. 

“I can fix it,” he said, scooting into the seat beside Takaki. “It actually looks like only one or two are wrong. It’s an easy fix, no worries.” 

Takaki swallowed the disappointment he felt and put on a smile while he let Chinen work. This was the third time today he’d screwed up what he was supposed to be working on. And every time, Chinen happily cleaned up his mess like he didn’t mind at all. But Takaki minded. He minded very much. Not being able to do his work made him feel useless. 

And he hated that feeling more than anything. 

“ _Takaki, report to the transporter room for an away mission,_ ” Yuto’s voice chirped over the intercom. 

“Oh, that’s exciting!” Chinen said, giving Takaki’s shoulder a congratulatory clap. “You must be going to check out the planet we’re orbiting.” 

“Guess so,” Takaki answered as he stood up. He wasn’t entirely sure that he should qualify to do work away from the ship, but if the captain called him, he had to go. At least it would be a nice change of scenery.

“Good luck out there,” Chinen smiled. “You better tell me all about it when you get back.” 

Takaki gave Chinen a lazy salute and a smile before he left. He straightened his shoulders as soon as he stepped out into the corridor, putting on his most confident face. If Chinen believed in him, then he would be okay. 

Probably.

***

Hikaru resisted the urge to say something snarky when Takaki stepped into the transporter room. Instead, he turned to look at Yuto who was giving him a smirk in response. Yuto didn’t even have to say anything. Hikaru knew this was his punishment for the nebula monster incident: being sent on a boring geological survey with his least favorite crewmate. 

Yuto smiled innocently at both of them as he explained the mission. “The scans indicate that there may be a wealth of materials that could be used as energy sources on this planet. I’d like you both to work together and survey what’s there. Simple, right?” 

They both nodded which satisfied Yuto enough to send them on their way. As far as punishments go, Hikaru supposed it could have been worse. Scanning rocks wasn’t a task where he was required to talk, so maybe it would be quiet work. If he could get everything done quickly, then he would be okay. 

Probably.

***

Everything was an orangey brown color as far as Takaki could see. Just lots and lots of dirt and rocks. He could see why this was an uninhabited planet. But the weather was nice, he noted. A slight breeze, lots of sunshine. 

“It’s no Risa, but with an ocean, this place would be pretty nice,” Takaki said, mostly to himself because Hikaru was already a few steps ahead of him scanning with his tricorder. 

“There’s not an ocean on this entire planet. Just lots of volcanoes,” Hikaru muttered back. 

Takaki figured this would be a good opportunity to start a conversation, maybe lighten up the mood since Hikaru seemed to be annoyed. “Have you ever been to Risa?” he asked. “I went once and it was amazing. You can just lie on the beach for hours and not even realize time was passing.” He climbed around a large boulder before continuing, “The beach is one of my favorite things.”

Hikaru didn’t look up from his tricorder as he let out a harsh laugh. “If you love the beach so much, why don’t we just drop you off at the next one we find?” 

Takaki just ignored the snide comment since he was used to them by now. He knew Hikaru didn’t like him. And truthfully, Takaki didn’t really like him either. Hikaru was a mean stick in the mud. Or… well, stick in the dirt here, he supposed. He was right about there not being much water on this planet, at least according to his scans. But Hikaru could insult him all he wanted. Takaki was used to hearing jokes about his intelligence level, had heard them all before.

“Looks like there could be a lot of dilithium crystals in that cave over there,” Hikaru said, pointing to a dark opening at the bottom of a large mountain. He didn’t even wait before he started walking in that direction. Takaki increased his pace to catch up, feeling the rocks in the soil dig into the soles of his shoes. On second thought, this really wasn’t the best spot for a beach. 

Once they reached the mouth of the cave, Takaki stopped to check his scanner again. He didn’t like the look of the readings. “Uh… you _do_ know this is a volcano, don’t you?” 

“Check your scans again,” Hikaru said, switching on a light. “It’s inactive. We’re fine.” 

Takaki shrugged and put his tricorder away because he felt like trying to interpret the readings was pointless after all the mistakes he usually made. Instead he focused on using his flashlight to navigate through the cave without tripping. After about ten minutes of walking, they reached a dead end where it widened into a more spacious opening. Hikaru set up some lights and their survey gear to get started. Takaki had given up on conversation. The shadows on Hikaru’s face made him look more annoyed than usual, so Takaki just gathered his samples in silence, taking care to place each one securely in the case. 

“Hey, where’s the drill?” Hikaru’s voice finally cut through the stillness. “There’s some sort of strange energy readings coming from deeper in the rock. I want to check it out.” 

They grabbed the tools and the two of them drilled a large hole into the side of the cave. Once the hole was big enough, they could both see a sort of greenish glowing color coming from inside. Without a word, the two of them leaned closer to get a better look, and that’s when a slimy green-glowing liquid bubbled up and spewed out of the hole, coating both their faces. 

“Ugh,” Takaki groaned as he took two steps back while rapidly wiping the stuff off of his face and out of his hair. He could hear Hikaru coughing and complaining too, but he was momentarily blinded by the slime to see anything. When he finally could open his eyes again, he could see the mysterious slime still oozing out of the hole. Checking the readings on his tricorder, he confirmed that the green stuff was the energy source they had been picking up. 

“Gross,” Hikaru muttered as he took another look at the green slime as he wiped it away. As the slime continued to ooze out of the hole in the rock, a light colored mist rose up from it almost like heat or steam. Hikaru checked his scans again while Takaki tried to fix his hair back into place. “There’s no dilithium here at all then,” he said. “Just false readings created by… whatever this crap is.” 

“We should probably get a sample of this stuff too,” Takaki suggested even though he was already filling up a vial to add to their rock collection. “I’m sure Chinen would love to study it and figure out why it tricked the scanners.” 

When Takaki leaned down to place the vial in the container, a wave of dizziness washed over him. He screwed his eyes shut and took a deep breath to steady himself. That was weird, he noted, because he’d been feeling perfectly fine all day long. He looked over at Hikaru again and saw him leaning against the rock wall, like he was trying to steady himself too. 

“Dizzy?” Takaki asked. 

“I’m sure it’s nothing,” Hikaru snapped. 

Takaki shrugged his shoulders in response but was hit with another wave of dizziness, throwing him off balance again. It was worse this time—for a moment he could have sworn the cave was spinning too—and his stomach began to churn. He wanted to sit down but he didn’t want Hikaru to make fun of him for being lazy on the job or whatever. 

But Hikaru looked more and more like he was feeling the same as Takaki. Even in the low light, Takaki could see that he looked paler than before. And his fingers shook as he pulled out his tricorder again and turned it on himself and then Takaki. 

“I think we’ve been infected with something.” 

“I agree,” Takaki said. His hands were beginning to shake too. Fighting the dizziness, he reached down again and grabbed their case of rock and slime samples. They could leave the rest of the gear behind but the samples might be important. When he straightened back up, Hikaru’s fingers were wrapped tightly around his arm, not giving him any time before dragging him towards the opening of the cave. Any other time he’d be annoyed, but the extra support was helpful as the dizziness got worse. 

It was a long walk out and they did it in complete silence. Takaki winced when he stepped back out into the bright sunlight. This mission had taken a bad turn, and he almost felt like he had let Chinen down. What was he going to say when he got back? 

Hikaru tapped his combadge, opening a communications channel with the ship. “We’ve got a medical emergency. Beam us both to sickbay and tell Yabu to set up a quarantine.” 

Not a moment later, Takaki could feel the tingling sensation of the transporter just as his consciousness slipped away. 

***

Yabu frowned at the test results: blood work, heart rate, nervous system, etc. None of it was good. A _whoosh_ of an opening door behind him signaled that someone had come to visit. 

“Status report?” Yamada asked. He looked at the two occupied beds blocked off with a strong force field to prevent infection for the rest of the crew. Both Hikaru and Takaki were unconscious at the moment.

“I don’t have anything good,” the doctor answered. He explained what his tests had told him. It was some sort of bacterial infection, a very vicious strain attacking several parts of their bodies. He was trying to develop a treatment but he had to start from scratch since he didn’t have any frame of reference for this infection in his database. “All I know for sure now,” he concluded his report, “is that they’ll die if I can’t figure out a treatment.” 

Yamada tried to look neutral but Yabu could see the emotions rolling underneath the surface. The commander may be the strictest of the crew, but he was also the one who cared about them the most. Even one loss to the crew would be devastating to all of them, but Yamada would probably take it the hardest. 

Yabu had to make sure that wouldn’t happen. “If you’ll excuse me then, I’ll get back to work.” 

Yamada nodded and left abruptly to inform the captain and the rest of the crew. Yabu went back to his tests. His patients would wake up soon and he needed to find something positive to tell them. 

***

Hikaru felt like he had been run over by a truck when he woke up in sickbay. It was almost like he had an alien flu, but Yabu’s debriefing suggested something much worse. The doctor had quickly given them both a checkup when they regained consciousness before telling them the seriousness of the situation. But Yabu put on a smile at the end, patting both of their shoulders and reassuring them he’d find a cure before the infection killed them. And then he rushed back to his office to continue working. Hikaru would have almost believed his optimism if he hadn’t known the medical program was designed to be reassuring in dire circumstances.

“Well this sucks,” he said out loud, not to start a conversation with Takaki really, but just to voice his thoughts. It helped to cope.

Takaki didn’t understand that of course. “It could be worse. We could already be dead,” he said from the bed beside him. His unusually pale skin was coated with a sheen of sweat and he looked to be in as much pain as Hikaru was, but he was still trying to be positive.

“Spending eternity with you would be hell,” Hikaru said without thinking. It was rude but his head hurt too much to think properly. “What a nightmare.”

Takaki shot him a nasty look. “I wouldn’t want to be stuck with you forever either. Do you ever even smile? It would be miserable.”

Hikaru scoffed even though the action sent a wave of pain across his body. “How would you even know what misery is? You’re always so happy, your airheaded brain probably can’t comprehend it. Chinen would have to explain it to you.” 

Takaki stared at him for a moment with a strange surge of angry emotions on his face before he finally said, “Actually, spending eternity with _you_ would be hell.” Then, with great effort, he rolled over on his side so he wasn’t facing Hikaru anymore. 

Annoyed, Hikaru rolled over to face the wall, but instantly regretted it as dizziness and nausea hit him again. To ignore it, he focused on the bland gray paneling of the wall and tried to think of something else. He was angry, not really at Takaki, but at himself for not being more careful. He should have taken more precautions, investigated the situation more, worn a hazmat suit or something. Either way, he felt like he’d screw up big time. Worse than the nebula whale incident. This time they were actually going to die. 

He heard the _whoosh_ of the doors open up but he didn’t bother to roll over and see who it was. A familiar voice calling out “Yuyan” instantly told him the visitor was Chinen. Hikaru pretended like he was asleep so he wouldn’t interrupt. 

“Hey Chii,” Takaki’s voice instantly sounded a bit happier than before. Hikaru could hear a slow shuffling sound of something moving. Probably Takaki had forced himself to sit up. 

“How are you feeling? Ryosuke just gave us the report,” Chinen’s words sounded more clipped than his usual smooth tone. Worry, of course. Understandably.

“Just sort of feels like the flu,” Takaki answered, trying to act like everything was okay for Chinen. “I’m sure Yabu will fix us up in no time.” 

“S-sure. Definitely,” Chinen stumbled over his words. “Yabu is a great doctor.” 

There was a silence between the two friends, but Hikaru couldn’t imagine what either of them would look like in the moment. Would Chinen have a fake smile plastered to his face while maybe Takaki’s happy-go-lucky exterior was starting to crack? 

“I should have taken pictures,” Takaki said quietly. “Of-of the planet, I mean. It reminded me of that desert we went to once. Remember? When we were in the Academy?”

“Ah,” Chinen’s voice sounded like his mind was a million lightyears away. “When we went to look at the stars.” 

“Yeah.”

“That was nice…” Chinen trailed off and Hikaru felt like he was intruding in a private moment. But then Chinen spoke again in a slightly louder tone. “You should probably get some rest. I’m still on duty so I should get back before someone notices I’m not at my post.” His footsteps rapidly crossed the room and then stopped. “And Hikaru,” he added, “you should get some sleep too instead of just pretending.” And with another _whoosh_ of the doors, he was gone. 

Since there was no point in pretending anymore, Hikaru shifted onto his back to stare up at the ceiling. Takaki had his hand pressed to his forehead as if he was holding back a headache. He moved slowly as he laid back down on the bed. 

“Stargazing in the desert?” Hikaru said impulsively, all ability to be tactful apparently lost with the pain. 

Takaki scowled at him. “With all due respect, Lieutenant, go to sleep.” He dodged the question and settled into a more comfortable position. 

“Do you do everything Chinen tells you to?” 

“Well he’s smarter than both of us, so… yeah.” Takaki closed his eyes so there was no room for further discussion. 

Hikaru didn’t have the energy to continue anyway. He closed his eyes too and drifted off to sleep. 

***

As Yabu worked on a cure, he also spent time shooing out a steady stream of visitors. Daiki and Keito had shown up to visit, inadvertently interrupting his patients’ rest to attempt to cheer them up. Yuto had arrived a little bit later, looking guilty about sending them on the mission, so Yabu couldn’t bring himself to throw the captain out. At least not until he’d had enough time for his apologies. Chinen kept showing up so many times, Yabu finally gave him his research so that he could help. Another pair of eyes might speed things up a bit. 

As Inoo left two trays of dinner behind for his patients, Yabu frowned at the latest test results. He was certain that he’d come up with a cure eventually. But he didn’t know if it would be soon enough for Takaki and Hikaru. He needed to be able to process information faster. If he could calculate things more quickly, maybe they would have a chance. 

A sudden terrible thought occurred to him. His program might work more efficiently if he deleted some things. When they first began this deep space exploration mission, Yabu had modified his program to make himself fit in better with the crew. He added in things to make himself more… human. 

His hands hovered over the computer for just a moment before he decided. A few taps on the keyboard and he’d deleted all his unnecessary subroutines: the human mannerisms, his ability to emote, the dumb jokes he liked to tell people during checkups. 

Those things were useless if he wasn’t able to save his crewmates. He sat down at his desk and went back to work. 

***

“Are you seriously drawing faces in your mashed potatoes?” Hikaru said with a snide look at the tray in Takaki’s lap. Hikaru shoveled a large bite of his own food into his mouth. Yabu had given them some painkillers not too long ago that made him feel weird and hungry and more relaxed. 

Takaki poked his food again. “I’m bored and I’m apparently dying. What else am I going to do? There’s not even anything to read.” It seemed like the painkillers weren’t working as well for him.

Hikaru pulled out his tablet. “I’ve got status reports. You can read such riveting data like Daiki’s inventory report or that Inoo put the ship in orbit around the planet way too low. As always. I don’t know what state the ship will be in if they put Inoo at the helm permanently.” He chuckled, imagining the chaos that would ensue.

“No thanks,” Takaki answered and winced. He rubbed his hands across his face like he was frustrated, and then he suddenly spoke, turning the conversation in a different direction. “I’m not an amazing pilot like you. The ship will function just fine without me, but not without you.” 

It looked like Takaki’s endless supply of optimism had run out. And normally, Hikaru might agree with that statement—he always thought Takaki was kind of out of place on their ship—but at the moment, he just looked so broken. Like a man ready to die. 

And Hikaru couldn’t stand that. Because if Takaki gave up hope, then what chance did he have? 

Instead of replying directly to Takaki statement of self-pity, Hikaru looked him directly in the eyes. “You know why I don’t like you? Mostly it’s because I think you’re an idiot, but also it’s because you’re so freaking cheerful all the time.” Perhaps he could have worded that better, but it was essentially what he meant. 

Takaki’s eyebrows drew close together as he considered Hikaru’s insult. “Well I don’t like you because you’re always grumpy. And mean. And a stick in the mud.” 

Hikaru ignored the insult directed at him. It was accurate. He could admit to that. “My point is… you’re not a pilot, okay. But some people around here need that cheerful attitude. It’s mostly Chinen, but I guess the rest of us need it sometimes too.” 

Takaki swirled his potatoes around with his fork as he considered that. “I’m just too tired to feel cheerful anymore.” 

A different conversation topic might help take Takaki’s mind off of the situation which wasn’t looking like it was going to get any better. He could see Yabu muttering to himself over in his office. Hikaru tapped his plate as he tried to figure out what to talk about. They were trapped together in sickbay, so he had to think of something. There wasn’t anyone else around to help. 

“You know, I’ve never thought you seemed like the type of person who would join Starfleet. All those rules and regulations. You don’t seem like the kind of guy who would have volunteered to spend all your time in a science lab.” 

Takaki sighed and pushed away his tray. He still had plenty food left but no appetite anymore. “You’re right though. I _don’t_ belong in Starfleet.”

“Then why’d you join?” Why would Takaki put himself through years of rigorous training for a job out in space that he wasn’t even very good at? The answer surprised him. 

“I like to travel.” His eyes looked distant as he was remembering. “And, well, I guess I joined because of Chinen too. We grew up together, did you know?” There was no hostility in his voice and none of his earlier pessimism either. Now he just sounded fond of his memories. But his voice still sounded weak and shaky, just like Hikaru’s did. Suddenly Hikaru didn’t feel like he could tease Takaki anymore. They’d never even sat down and had a serious conversation like this before. 

“I actually didn’t know that.”

Takaki smiled. “We were neighbors, did everything together. I liked to travel a lot, see new places. I travelled all over Earth and a lot of times, Chinen went with me too, if he could. You could say that travelling is the only thing I’m good at because I was a failure in everything else. You’re not the first person who’s called me an idiot.” 

Hikaru felt a pang of guilt from his earlier words.

“I always screwed things up, no matter what I tried. And everyone told me I was worthless, useless, good for nothing. Everyone but Chinen. It’s cheesy, I know, but he believes in me.” Takaki shrugged. “So when he said I should join Starfleet with him, I said sure.” 

“I didn’t know any of that,” Hikaru said. He looked down and focused on the remains of his dinner. All this time Hikaru had been judging Takaki based on just that excessively cheerful sunny exterior, and _he_ was the idiot for not considering what was underneath. He couldn’t deny that Takaki worked hard. And really, if he was being honest, what Hikaru actually disliked was the optimism. Because Hikaru had never been able to switch that on for himself.

“You’re not useless,” he muttered.

“What did you say?” Takaki leaned closer, cupping his ear to hear better.

“I said you’re not useless,” he repeated louder. “Don’t make me say it again.” 

Takaki laughed. Although it sounded weak, it also sounded genuine. “You’re not the stick in the mud like you want everyone to think, you know.” 

“Yes I am,” Hikaru answered quickly and then laughed. The motion caused pain in his chest but he ignored it.

“So why did _you_ join Starfleet? Did you always want to be an ace pilot?” Takaki asked. This seemed more of a return to his usual self. Curious and friendly.

“Starfleet was an escape,” he answered honestly, thinking about the planet he grew up on. 

Takaki nodded and waited for him to explain. 

“You may have grown up on Earth,” Hikaru began, “but my family lived on a colony near the Demilitarized Zone. Not close enough to have been invaded by Cardassians during the Dominion War, but not far enough away to avoid conflict either.” He watched as Takaki’s eyes widen a bit with understanding. Earth hadn’t been the site of any battles, but of course he knew about what had happened during the war. The Federation was _still_ recovering from the aftermath. 

“Living there was chaos,” he continued. “There were always people coming and going, smuggling weapons or passing on intel. It wasn’t safe. Everything was uncertainty.” Hikaru could easily remember the palpable taste of fear in the air on some days. “I learned to fly because I thought it would help give me control.” 

“Did it help?” Takaki’s voice was barely a whisper.

Hikaru considered it as he thought back over his life. “Yeah actually, I think it did.” Piloting spaceships gave him focus and Starfleet gave him structure. 

Takaki gave him a smile—a genuine, happy smile. “I’m glad you found something you loved to do.” Then he looked more serious. “But I’m sorry you had to go through all that.” 

Hikaru shook his head even though it hurt. He’d made peace with that part of his life a long time ago. “I just wish,” he chuckled weakly, “I could go out flying the ship instead of being stuck in sickbay.” 

“Yeah,” Takaki agreed wistfully. 

“Seriously, Inoo’s not a good replacement. Like I said, he always puts us way too low in orbit.” He glanced back at his status reports and something caught his eye. “Wait a minute…” He double-checked the readings. “We _are_ flying way too low. We’re in the lower atmosphere. We could fly into a freaking volcano at this level.” 

“That’s not good, right?” Takaki set up a little straighter, looking suddenly worried. 

“I don’t know,” Hikaru answered tapping the screen to get a better picture of the situation. They were circling the planet and about to pass by the volcano they had been exploring earlier. It had been inactive previously, but the readings indicated that it was about to erupt. That would send tons of that green slime and ash into the atmosphere, coating the ship in the same particles that had infected both of them. He couldn’t let that happen. He quickly explained the situation to Takaki. 

“We’ll never move the ship in time,” Hikaru concluded. “The gravitational pull at this level is too strong that it would slow us down and probably take too much time to maneuver out of the way. They must not realize it at all.” 

Takaki’s eyes widened like something had just clicked in his head. “What if… instead of moving the ship, we just stop the volcano?” 

“What?! How are we going to do that? You can’t _stop_ a volcano from erupting.” 

“But you can redirect it.” Takaki reached out for the tablet and pulled up some information. “If we set up some explosive charges on the sides and blow some holes in it, that would lessen the pressure of the eruption, right? Because the slime stuff would have more areas of escape instead of just straight up towards the ship.” 

“That could work.” Hikaru stood up. “You know it’s a suicide mission though. More exposure to the bacteria, not to mention getting away from the blast.” Hikaru was already hacking the ship’s computer system to set up the transporter. 

“It’s us or the ship,” Takaki reminded him. 

“You think you have enough strength to get in position and set the charges? I’m not sure how long these painkillers Yabu gave us will last.” Hikaru could see that Takaki’s hands were shaking slightly. But his hands were beginning to feel weak too. 

“Yes,” Takaki answered with determination.

Hikaru had the coordinates set. The system would transport them as close as possible along with the gear they needed. “Good luck,” were his final words before he activated the transporter. 

***

Takaki’s knees buckled as he rematerialized on the desert planet, but he pulled himself back up through sheer determination. He carried the charges closer to the volcano and began to drill into the side of the rock, opening up a space to put the explosives in. The green slime began to ooze out along with the white steam. He was beginning to feel dizzy but tried to ignore it. The more he worked, the more it felt like his insides were collapsing. And just as it was complete, he felt something run down his face to his lips. He reached up with his hands and realized his nose was bleeding. That was a bad sign for his body, but he didn’t have time to worry about that. Now that everything was in place, he flipped the detonation switch to explode the charges and hoped Hikaru had been able to do the same. He sank to his knees just as he was about to lose consciousness. As everything went black, he thought he could hear the explosion behind him and maybe the familiar tingle of the transporter.

***

Takaki opened his eyes and figured he should be dead, but if so, the gray ceiling he was staring at above him was a bit of disappointment for the afterlife. But then he felt a hand gripping his own, and once he realized that person was Chinen, he figured maybe being dead wouldn’t be so bad after all. 

“You’re both finally awake!” Chinen said. He turned to call out over his shoulder. “Hey, they’re awake.” 

So he wasn’t dead after all somehow, Takaki supposed. In the bed beside him, Hikaru blinked away the grogginess as he woke up too. Takaki wondered why they weren’t in quarantine anymore and how they’d survived. 

“You guys were really stupid,” Yamada said as he walked up, but he looked relieved instead of angry. “But thank you for saving the ship.” 

“To be fair,” Hikaru spoke with a gravelly voice. “Yabu gave us some pretty strong painkillers that messed with my head.” 

He laughed and Takaki couldn’t help but join in. Maybe it was just relief from being alive. Yabu, with a curiously blank expression, walked over and scanned them both to make sure everything was okay. “How long have we been out?” 

“Two days,” Chinen answered, gripped Takaki’s hand just a little tighter. “Yabu was able to put together a cure for you both just in time.” 

“Returning to the planet and exposing yourselves to infection again almost damaged both of your bodies beyond repair,” Yabu said in an unusually monotone voice. “You both need more time to rest and recover, but neither of you are at risk of dying anymore.” 

Takaki sighed with relief and exchanged a happy look with Hikaru. He was glad it was all over.

“Don’t look so happy to have saved our lives, Doc,” Hikaru laughed a little. 

Yamada frowned. “He can’t look happy. _Somebody_ thought it’d be a good idea to delete parts of his program.” He directed his sarcasm towards the doctor who obviously couldn’t really care about it. 

“You deleted your emotions?” Takaki looked at the hologram who was usually so cheerful. It was strange to see him look just… blank. 

Hikaru coughed and shifted in his bed. “I’ll fix your program as soon as I can get up again. Nobody wants a grumpy doctor.” 

“I did what was necessary,” Yabu said. “Now you all should leave sickbay and let my patients rest.” 

“I liked you better with emotions,” Yamada grumbled as he walked towards the door. 

“Get well soon,” Chinen said with one last squeeze of Takaki’s hand before he left too.

Yabu returned to his office, leaving Takaki and Hikaru alone again. Sleep seemed like an appealing option at the moment. He was still recovering. But as soon as he closed his eyes, Hikaru spoke. 

“I was wondering,” he began, “how did you come up with the plan to stop the volcano? It was a good one.” 

Takaki chuckled, not even bothering to open his eyes. “Bottle rockets. Chinen and I used to make them as kids and I always sabotaged his by poking holes in the sides.” 

He could hear Hikaru laughing at his answer, but sleep was fast approaching. Takaki decided that he much preferred the sound of Hikaru’s laugh to the sound of his mean comments of the past. Almost dying wasn’t fun, but he guessed it might have been worth it. 

He had a new friend.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Two characters who don't like each other but eventually bond isn't a sci-fi exclusive trope, but it's fun anyway. This one was very vaguely inspired by the Voyager episode [Parturition](http://memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/Parturition_\(episode\)/)


	4. Episode 4: It's All Fun and Games

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A little something for the yamayuto shippers out there ^_^
> 
> Terms for this chapter: **holodeck** , a place on a spaceship that runs holographic programs for fun

_Captain’s Log: Stardate 2380.52  
We’ve arrived at a friendly planet and I’ve decided it’s time for us all to take a break. Things have been crazy the past couple weeks with the alien invasion, the nebula whale incident, two of my crewmen almost dying, and also that weird pot-roast thing Inoo made which gave everyone food poisoning. So we’ve docked at a planet which looks to be a lot of fun. They’re friendly to tourists and could be a source of some interesting cultural exchanges. Either way, we’re going to enjoy our vacation time._

“You sure you guys don’t want to come with us?” Yuto asked one more time as Hikaru and Takaki stood at the controls for the transporter. 

“Thanks, but we’re going to spend our vacation on the holodeck,” Hikaru answered. 

“On the sunny beaches of Risa,” Takaki added with a grin. 

Yuto laughed. He’d never expected the two of them to become friends, but he guessed it was easier to bond with someone when you almost die with them. Whatever the case, the crew could do whatever they wanted during their vacation time, so he didn’t mind. He hoped actually that he himself would be able to sneak in a secret date or two with Yamada while they were on the planet. Sometimes it was hard to spend time with him on the ship because Yamada always worried that the crew would figure out they were dating. But on the planet, they’d be able to sneak somewhere away from prying curious eyes. 

With that thought in mind, Yuto grinned. “Beam us down,” he ordered. 

“Have fun,” Takaki waved at them as Hikaru tapped the console. 

They rematerialized on the transporter pad inside what looked to be the visitor center, crowded with tourists and helpful guides. There were kiosks scattered around the room to provide information about what the place had to offer. 

“So many choices,” Daiki said, looking around with a stressed expression. “How am I supposed to choose?” 

“You’ve got two days,” Yamada reminded him. “You can do lots of things.” 

“But what do I do _first?”_

Inoo sighed and grabbed Daiki’s arm, dragging him towards the closest kiosk. “I’ll pick. Come on, guys.” Chinen and Keito followed after him to see what Inoo would pick, leaving Yuto behind with Yamada. 

“Perfect,” Yuto said. “So what would you like to do?” 

Yamada gave him a sly smile now that they were alone. “Something relaxing maybe. Somewhere quiet. Is that what you want?” 

Yuto started walking around the center. “Exactly what I was thinking. Maybe we can find a spa or something.” Daiki was right about there being lots of choices, he thought. The visitor center was huge but being so tall, it was easy for him to navigate his way through the crowd of people. He glanced over his shoulder to make sure Yamada was still behind him. 

He wasn’t, and suddenly Yuto felt panic creeping up in him. His eyes darted around the room to spot his missing boyfriend. Finally he sighed with relief as he spotted the familiar body frame standing over by a kiosk, leaning forward as he intently read the information. Yuto weaved back through the crowd to see what held Yamada’s interest. 

“That’s… interesting,” Yuto said as he leaned over Yamada’s shoulder. “You want to go watch some sort of race?” The information displayed looked to be for a local annual race for small shuttlecrafts. The route looked to span a large portion of the area nearby, passing by several local landmarks. 

“No, I want to _join_ the race,” Yamada said. His eyes were glittering with excitement that Yuto didn’t often see. He grabbed Yuto’s arms as he explained. “Imagine how fun it would be. Me and you flying together, ready to crush the competition. See all the sights along the way. What do you say?” 

“It’s not really what I had in mind, but it could be fun,” Yuto answered. He supposed it would give him the alone time he wanted and he’d get to see more of the planet in the process. 

Yamada looked pleased and also a tiny bit guilty. “Great, because I already signed us up.” He handed him several information packets. “It starts in I think… two hours? We should probably get going.” 

Yuto spluttered for a moment as he looked over it all. “I lost sight of you for like three seconds! How did you…? Nevermind. You know you’re secretly ridiculous, but that’s what I like about you.” He let Yamada lead the way as they went off to get ready. 

***

“Having dinner first was a good decision,” Daiki said between spoonfuls of his soup. “I don’t know what’s in this but it’s delicious.” 

“You’re welcome,” Inoo said smugly as he reached across the table to snag a bit from Keito’s plate. Keito shot him an annoyed glance and tried to shield his food from any more sticky fingers. 

Chinen laughed. “At least we’re in less danger of getting food poisoning here.” He looked over at Inoo who was pretending to not hear him. “And we left Yuto and Ryosuke alone too, so that’s good.”

“Maybe they’ll stop being dumb and realize how much they like each other. You know how they look at each other when they think no one else is paying attention,” Daiki said. He slurped his soup, sending messy flecks of liquid onto the table and also Keito beside him. Keito looked annoyed again and scooted further away while trying to shield his plate. 

“Well anyway, we should go enjoy our vacation,” Chinen said. “Put your food in a to-go box, Keito and let’s go.” 

Keito sighed but they all stood up from the table to go pay the bill. Confused about where to get a to-go box, Keito picked up his plate just as someone brushed past him. The collision sent half the food onto his shirt but he managed to save the rest of it. The man who rushed past turned and sent a nasty glare at all of them before leaving. 

“That guy looked shady,” Inoo said.

“Super shady,” Chinen agreed. 

“I liked this shirt,” Keito muttered. 

Chinen looked after where the guy had gone. “Hey Daiki, pay for all our food real quick so we can follow that guy.” 

“Wait, what?” 

“Yeah,” Inoo agreed as he helped Keito get his food into a container. “He looked like he was going somewhere suspicious and the suspicious places are always the most exciting on any planet.” 

“But why do I have to pay?”

“Hurry up or we’ll lose him,” Chinen said, sticking his head out of the door to keep the man in sight. 

“What kind of vacation is this?” Daiki muttered as he quickly paid for all of their meals. Keito grabbed some silverware to take with him so he could continue eating on the move. And then they were off on their own adventure.

***

Yamada sat down at the controls to familiarize himself with the ship that the race organizers had provided. Everything appeared to be in perfect working order. Yuto sat down in the seat beside him to put the race course route into the computer. Yamada paused for a moment as he watched Yuto’s long fingers fly across the controls with ease. The captain had always been good at adapting to anything, this little shuttlecraft was no exception. 

And Yamada was excited about being able to get into the competition with Yuto. They hardly ever had the chance to spend time alone together, and when they did, it was just quiet dates in their quarters. He wanted something different and this was something they could do without worrying the crew would find out their secret. 

He was suddenly seized with the urge to kiss Yuto. Without any sort of warning, he grabbed Yuto’s collar, pulling him close, before kissing him hard. Maybe a bit rougher than he intended but he wouldn’t apologize for it. Yuto was kissing him back just as eagerly. 

“How about we just skip the race and make out for the next few hours?” Yuto said when Yamada pulled away to return to the controls. 

“Nice try,” he smiled, “but forfeiting is just as bad as losing. And we’re not going to lose this race.” 

Adrenaline was already pumping through his veins. He was ready, and he knew with Yuto by his side, they could beat this challenge.

***

“Do you want to place bets about whether this guy is a crime boss or just an unfortunately scary-looking delivery guy?” Inoo whispered as the four of them huddled together around the corner from where the guy from the restaurant had stopped to talk to some other people. They’d been following the tall muscular man for the past ten minutes as he traveled through alleyways and past rundown buildings, places that looked “super sketch” according to Chinen. There were less people around this area, and those there looked like the kind of people they should stay away from. But at the moment, they hadn’t attracted too much attention. 

“How about crime boss who is nice enough to buy lunch for his employees?” Chinen suggested to Inoo’s question. The man handed two other guys some take-out containers of food, and they all began talking quietly amongst themselves. 

“I thought this was supposed to be exciting,” Daiki whispered, peeking through the gap between Inoo and Chinen. His eyes darted around like he was waiting for attackers to appear out of nowhere. 

“Shh,” Inoo whispered. “I think they’re talking about some sort of race.” He leaned slightly forward to hear better. “Yeah, something about putting money on their best racer. And… oh, the race must have already begun. Now he’s talking about some new racer causing problems. They apparently put a lot of money on their racer because this guy sounds angry. And now… something about ensuring victory…?” He was suddenly yanked backwards by Daiki when one of the men glanced in their direction. 

After a moment, Chinen cautiously peered back around the corner. “They’re leaving. We should see what they’re going to do about the race.” 

Daiki poked Keito’s shoulder to get him to follow along. Keito just sighed and closed his food container again. “Time to explore more of this planet,” Daiki said. “Just think of this like a special tour.” 

“It’d be a better tour if we got souvenirs,” Keito muttered, but followed the rest of them as they disappeared further into the shady part of the city.

***

The deeper they got into the race, the rougher the competition got. More and more racers were trying to take out their competition. They’d avoided most, but their shuttle still suffered a few hits, leaving Yuto busy patching up problem spots all over. As captain, he had almost forgotten what it was like to run around like that and get his hands dirty. It reminded him a bit of his first assignment on a starship as an ensign, fresh out of the Academy. 

When they leveled out to a smoother part of the race course, Yuto sank back down into his chair. He grabbed his bag and quickly dug out his camera—an antique that he still liked to use. Yamada was still completely focused on navigating the ship through this section of the course, and Yuto framed his side profile through the lens to snap a picture. He smiled as the camera clicked, capturing that stern face on film forever. 

“Maybe smile for the next one,” Yuto teased, but Yamada only waved him away absentmindedly. 

“I’m trying to concentrate,” Yamada answered. “So we can win.” 

The smile slipped off Yuto’s face before he could stop it. “You know, we can still have fun whether we win or not.” He glanced toward the window. “You’re missing all the good stuff.” The mountain range they were passing by looked stunning in the sunlight. He adjusted the settings on his camera and tried to capture a few good shots of the mountains as they shot past. And then he quietly observed for a bit without speaking because he knew good conversation would be impossible while Yamada was like this. That competitive streak was amusing at first, but frustrating as it continued. Yuto knew that he loved Yamada a lot, but it was things like this he wished he could change. 

Another jolt rocked the shuttle, throwing Yuto off balance as a shower of sparks rained down from different parts of the ship. Yamada cursed under his breath as he tried to regain control. Yuto glanced out the window again to see a few competitors pass them by. 

“Yuto, I need you to realign the magnetic couplings,” Yamada said without even so much as a glance in his direction. “Yuto,” he repeated when he realized Yuto wasn’t moving. 

But the captain didn’t move. He was sick of it. “No,” he answered. “You’re on your own.”

This finally got Yamada’s attention. His eyes—usually full of fond affection—stared back at him with shock and a growing sense of anger. “Why are you acting like this?” 

“Why are _you_ acting like this?” Yuto shot back. 

Yamada scoffed with a disgusted face as if he couldn’t believe what was happening. “Fine, I’ll do it myself.” He left the controls and grabbed the tool kit with a fury, rushing back to the area that needed fixing. Yuto was angry now too and turned his back on Yamada. But just a second later, the lights began to flicker and dim while the whole shuttle began to power down. He whipped around the see what Yamada had done, but he hadn’t even touched anything yet. He looked just as perplexed as Yuto. 

“Where’s this power drain coming from?” Yamada asked as he started scanning the ship. 

Yuto checked the readout on the consoles. “I don’t know.” He frowned as he realized what the readings meant. “I think we’re stuck.” 

***

“That doesn’t look good,” Daiki said from where they were watching the criminals again. They had travelled far outside of the city to follow the men who were up to no good. Above their heads, several shuttles raced past, not noticing anyone below at all. The four of them watched as the men put some device into place and turned it out. 

Chinen pulled out his tricorder to determine what they were doing. “It’s a dampening field,” he explained, “designed to stop a shuttle in its tracks and drain its power completely.” 

“That’s cheating,” Inoo pushed up his sleeves like he was going to fight. “We need to stop them.” 

“You cheat at every game we’ve ever played,” Keito remarked quietly. Inoo shot him an annoyed look but Keito just went back to eating the last of his leftover food. 

Daiki looked away from the men for a moment. “He’s right, you know. You can’t just make up new rules for chess every time we play. And the ‘hey look over there’ ploy is getting old.” 

“And yet you still fall for it every time,” Inoo hissed back.

“Hey,” Chinen interrupted, tugging on Daiki’s sleeve. “Where’d they all go?” 

“We’re right here,” a gruff voice said from nearby. The men emerged from the shadows around them, all looking pleased about discovering their hiding spot. Keito paused mid-chew and silently held out his food container as a peace offering. The leader laughed and knocked it right out of Keito’s hands, scattering the last few bites of food onto the ground. 

“Hey, look over there!” Inoo called out and pointed over their shoulders. No one fell for that trick and instead pulled out their weapons and pointed at the crewmates. Every one of them looked menacing, so the Starfleet officers put their hands in the air instead of drawing their own weapons. 

As the criminals reached out and restrained the group, Daiki muttered, “I told you that trick never works.” 

***

Their shuttle was somehow being held in place, hovering above the ground as if trapped in invisible mud. Yamada rushed to get them out of it, but no matter what he did, the controls wouldn’t respond anymore. The shuttle was still steadily losing power. He tried to ignore the weak sound the engine was making as he continued to reroute power from non-vital parts of the ship. 

What he couldn’t ignore was Yuto beside him, trying to solve the problem too. “I thought you weren’t helping me.” 

“If this shuttle falls out of the sky and crashes, anger won’t do me any good. We’d both be too dead to care.”

Yamada knew he had a point. Saving their lives was more important than winning the race, even if he had desperately wanted to win. “I’m sorry,” he said, voice barely above a whisper. 

“What was that?” Yuto turned to look at him with an expression Yamada didn’t know how to read. 

“I’m sorry,” he repeated a little louder. “For getting us into this mess. I thought it would be fun.” In the beginning, he thought racing together would be something to do to spend time with Yuto, but he had been so focused on staying in the lead that he had pushed Yuto aside. He knew he tended to get too wrapped up in competitions, but this was his dumbest mistake yet. 

Yuto sighed, but he didn’t look angry anymore. Yamada thought that sometimes Yuto was entirely too forgiving—perhaps not the best trait for a starship captain, but a virtuous one nonetheless. And a trait he was grateful for even if he felt like he didn’t deserve it. 

“I can’t change who you are, Ryosuke,” he said. “I love how determined you are to do your best and win. I really do. I just wish you would relax sometimes. Learn to let go when you _can’t_ win. That’s all I ask.” 

“Vacations are for relaxing,” Yamada agreed. “Sometimes I forget.” 

A shrill beeping from the console reminded both of them of the matter at hand. They still needed to get out of the dampening field that held the shuttle captive. “We can talk about it later,” Yuto said. “Hand me a hypospanner. I’m going to fiddle around with the engines.” 

Yamada gave him the tool and watched as Yuto got to work. 

***

“This is a terrible vacation,” Keito whispered. “These handcuffs are starting to give me a rash.” 

The four of them had been tied up and thrown into the dark nearby alleyway. Their captors didn’t seem very interested in them at the moment because they were focused on figuring out if their racer was in the lead. The men were huddled around a computer screen and talking amongst themselves. 

“Someone should help me get my lock-pick,” Inoo said as he wiggled around a bit to test the restraints. 

“Where is it?” Daiki asked. 

“My pants.” 

Daiki just gave Inoo a deadpan stare in response to that. 

“I’m kidding,” Inoo continued. “It’s in my shoe.” He stretched his leg towards Daiki’s hands so he could reach inside the black boots he was wearing. Reluctantly, Daiki quietly maneuvered his hands so that he could dig out the tool without the men noticing anything. 

“Got it,” Daiki said, pulling out the small slender piece of metal. “Now get us out of here.” 

“I don’t actually know how to pick locks though,” Inoo answered with a shrug. 

The three of them simultaneously glared at Inoo before Chinen snatched the tool away. “Well I do,” he said and got to work. 

“Why do you know how to… you know what, nevermind,” Daiki whispered back, shaking his head. 

Chinen was fast as he undid each of their handcuffs, only taking a little extra time with his own restraints because of the odd angle he had to turn his wrists. But soon, they were all free. And because the men were still distracted, they didn’t even wait before the four of them sprang into action. 

Despite his appearance, Inoo was surprisingly good at hand-to-hand combat and got in a good kick at the leader before the others noticed what had happened. The element of surprise meant that Chinen and Keito had the chance to disarm the three men before they could even pull out their weapons. And after a moment of indecision, Daiki snuck around everyone to reach the controls for the dampening field. A few codes entered into the system and the whole thing shut down, leaving any shuttles caught inside the field able to escape. 

“Good work, you guys,” Inoo said, brushing off his hands as they incapacitated the last of the men. “That was fun.” 

“It was okay,” Chinen shrugged. 

“We should probably call the police,” Keito suggested as he rubbed his sore wrists. “And then maybe go find something less exciting to do for a while.”

***

“We’ve got power back,” Yamada said sounding surprised.

Yuto looked up from the circuitry he was examining. “Really? But I haven’t been able to fix anything yet.” 

“The dampening field just deactivated. Full power’s been restored to all systems.” 

Yuto breathed a sigh of relief and then pulled Yamada close for a kiss. He was just glad they were going to be okay. When he broke the kiss, he framed Yamada’s face with his hands, suddenly feeling overwhelmed by affection. There was a familiar fondness in Yamada’s eyes, and their previous argument seemed unimportant now. Nothing like a life-threatening situation in order to put a silly disagreement into perspective. 

“I think we’ve still got a race to win,” Yuto said. 

“You think we even still have a chance?” Yamada asked. The rest of the competition had left them behind.

Yuto smiled. “The last spurt is always the most fun, especially if you’re the underdog in the race.” He paused and decided to add with more seriousness. “You’ll be okay even if we lose… right?” 

Yamada sat back down and nodded. 

“Then let’s do this,” Yuto said as he settled back down beside Yamada. 

They got to work straight away, Yamada piloting and Yuto adjusting the shuttle’s systems to help them fly fast enough to catch up with everyone else. The shuttle had an excellent engine, Yuto decided, as it didn’t take them long before the rest of the competition was in sight. They’d apparently gone through a rough patch of the course and it looked like several people had been knocked out of the race, which gave them an advantage. Yuto could feel the rush of adrenaline beginning to course through his veins. He needed to be on full alert to help Yamada navigate them through the obstacles left behind in the course. They both spoke quickly with each other, throwing out warnings about danger and congratulations when they avoided it. _This_ is what had been missing earlier: communication, a sense of working together. Once Yamada had relaxed some and Yuto had let himself be a bit more serious about the race, they were finally racing at peak efficiency. 

The finish line was approaching and Yuto almost felt like every fiber of his being was vibrating with excitement. He shouted some encouragement to Yamada while he rerouted more power to the engines, and Yamada laughed as he flew the last distance to the end.

“We made it,” Yuto said, sinking down into his chair as soon as it was over. He grinned at Yamada. “We made it.” 

Yamada reached out and grabbed his hand, holding it tight as he smiled brightly. “I don’t even care if we won or lost,” he admitted, looking almost surprised at the truthfulness of this. “That last bit was the most fun.” 

They waited around a few minutes for the official results. When the judges announced that they’d come in second place, Yuto couldn’t help but let out a loud shout of joy. He saw Yamada looking proud too. They hadn’t won, but the satisfaction of working together was enough. After all the fanfare was over, all they had left to do was return the shuttlecraft back to where they’d picked it up originally at the start of the race. 

“Hey,” Yuto began as they got back inside. “Do you think we can take the long way back?” He held up his camera and snapped a quick picture of Yamada’s face. 

Yamada rose up on his toes to press a kiss to Yuto’s lips. “We’ll definitely take the scenic route.”

***

The transporter activated and the whole crew rematerialized back onto the ship. Takaki and Hikaru were already waiting to greet them.

“How was vacation?” Takaki asked them as Chinen immediately handed him a small souvenir.

“Oh, you know, the usual,” Inoo shrugged. “Trying new food, shopping, taking down a crime syndicate. No biggie.” 

Hikaru narrowed his eyes. “What was that last one?” 

“It’s really not as exciting as it sounds,” Keito answered. 

“And we won a race,” Yuto said before anyone else could speak. He looked excited about telling them and was about to launch into all the details until Yamada cut him off. 

“We actually came in second place,” he explained, “but the winner got disqualified for cheating. Some of his friends or something rigged up some traps so that he could win. So we got first place by default once the judges found that out.” 

Yuto clapped his hands. “We’ll tell you all about it on the bridge. It’s time to get back to work now.” 

“You’re not going to give us a slideshow presentation of your photos, are you?” Daiki asked. 

Yuto grinned but didn’t say anything as he left the transporter room. 

“Sounds like everyone had a good time,” Takaki said to Hikaru. 

“Yeah,” Hikaru agreed. “But they didn’t get to eat the secret stash of chocolate from the kitchen like we did.” 

Takaki grinned. “Our poor crewmates.” 

***

_Captain’s Personal Log: Stardate 2380.54  
Our two days of vacation are over but I think the whole crew had a good time. Even Yabu enjoyed the souvenirs we brought back for him. But I think the best part for me was getting to spend time with Ryosuke. We both learned a little about ourselves and how to work better together. And, this was probably against protocol—even though Ryosuke didn’t say anything against it—but I totally hung up our plaque for winning first place on the bridge. _

_It’s a good reminder._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There's ALWAYS a space race episode. ALWAYS. The Voyager space race episode inspiring this one is [Drive](http://memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/Drive_\(episode\)/). There's also a Stargate SG-1 episode where they enter a race. And even the anime series Space Dandy has one.


	5. Episode 5: Choices

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You know when you're watching a TV series and there's always at least one episode where you're like "uh, what were the writers even thinking??" 
> 
> Yeah, this is that episode. I'm sorry! Maybe I will be able to write Daiki properly one day.

The engine room looked a bit menacing when it was bathed in red light from the ship’s red alert. Even the bright blue warp core looked muted under the darker colored lighting. But Daiki didn’t have time to contemplate aesthetics. Not when the ship was in danger. He flitted around the room from console to console, trying to get the engines to work properly again. There was so much to do, his head was pounding from trying to prioritize everything. 

“ _Lieutenant, we need to break free before the next shockwave hits_ ,” Captain Yuto’s voice streamed out over the comm system. Yuto never addressed him by his rank until the situation was serious. The ship had somehow flown near a strange subspace phenomenon and they’d gotten stuck. While they were “dead in the water,” so to speak, the shockwaves from it kept battering the ship. 

Daiki knew he had to work fast. “Come on,” he muttered under his breath at the engine. “I need you to work.” The voices of the rest of the crew buzzed in his ears. The comm channel was still open and he could hear every scenario and suggestion being thrown around. 

Too many choices. Too many options. Daiki froze with his hands hovering above a console. How was he supposed to decide what the best option was? What was he going to do? 

He didn’t have time to wonder as another shockwave shook the ship, throwing him off balance and pitching his perspective to the side. He reached out to steady himself but a surge of energy fried the console’s circuits and the overload sent him flying backwards. He landed hard on the floor, feeling a sharp pain in his head before he lost consciousness, the red lights all fading to black. 

When he woke up, Daiki could see the ceiling of engineering. It looked normal like always, no trace of damage from the shockwaves and the normal lighting had returned. Daiki sat up slowly, wondering what had happened. Did they make it out okay? 

“Daiki, hurry up and get to the bridge. You’ll be late,” Yuto’s voice chirped through the comm. No trace of the anxiety-ridden voice Daiki could hear just a few minutes ago. Late for what, he wondered. 

He had a headache from where he had fallen but it didn’t seem like something he needed Yabu to check out. It was only a short trip to the bridge. He was surprised though that everyone, minus Yabu of course, was gathered there when he arrived. And things looked _normal_. Which was _weird_. There were no signs of any damage to the ship from what they just went through. Daiki distinctly remembered a report from Yamada about damage earlier. Maybe he’d hit his head harder than he thought. 

“Just in time,” Inoo quipped as he noticed Daiki’s arrival. “You were about to miss the admiral.” 

“Admiral?” he repeated too quietly for anyone else to hear. Out on a deep space exploration mission, they didn’t just regularly chat with admirals from Starfleet Headquarters. In fact, Daiki could remember the only time they talked to an admiral was the day they left the space dock for their journey. He glanced around the room to see everyone buzzing with an air of nervousness. It was not the atmosphere of comfortable chatting he was used to. 

He leaned over and whispered to Inoo, “What’s going on?” 

Inoo blinked back. “You don’t remember? Did you hit your head?” 

“Um, yes actually,” he answered truthfully. He had a weird feeling about this whole thing. Something was definitely off but it didn’t want to acknowledge what he thought it might be.

“The admiral is about to send us off with a dumb speech or something. Are you sure you’re okay? Maybe you should go see that doctor in sickbay.” Inoo looked at him with concern. 

Now Daiki knew things were not right for sure because no one just called Yabu “that doctor” except for when they’d just begun their mission and none of them knew the hologram’s name yet. But before he could say anything else, the admiral’s face appeared on the view screen. Daiki put on his best attentive face along with the rest of the crew, but inside he was freaking out. _How_ was he reliving something that had happened a year ago? How was he going to get back to his own time period? 

The admiral’s speech wasn’t all that exciting—especially not hearing it a second time—so Daiki was only barely paying attention. It was a lot of talk about exploration and representing the Federation and making good decisions. 

_Decisions._ The word made Daiki wince involuntarily, but no one else seemed to notice his discomfort. He knew he’d always had a problem choosing whenever he had a lot of choices. His brain always went into overdrive, over-thinking all the possibilities and consequences. Everyone had told him going into Starfleet was a bad idea. There would be times when his life depended on swift action and there would be no time to thoroughly think about each option. But after, ironically, taking a long time to consider it, he finally did join. And while he was at the Academy, he thought he’d improved a little even though indecisiveness was apparently a hard habit to break. One step forward, two steps back.

He wondered if this strange occurrence—suddenly reliving the past—was some sort of punishment for his hesitation in the engine room earlier. Had they all died because he’d frozen up and now this was his punishment? To live through it all again?

He glanced around at his crewmates, all still listening intently to the old admiral as he rambled on. They all looked happy and excited as they were about to leave for their new adventure. They knew it would be tough but they had no regrets. Daiki tried to think about how he felt the first time he stood on the Bridge for this. He had been excited too. Ready to get out into space and explore new things, see new places. He had been 100% positive that he’d made the right choice back then. 

He needed that confidence back now. 

As soon as the admiral was done, his face disappeared from the screen, leaving the ship free to start out on their journey. Daiki leaned closer to Inoo and whispered, “I think I will get the doctor to look at my head,” and then he slipped quietly away from the Bridge before anyone else noticed. 

If anyone could be a voice of reason, it would be Yabu. Being a computer program had its advantages when you needed someone to look over a problem with a level head. But as Daiki trekked through the corridors towards sickbay, he thought things looked a bit different. He slowed down to pay more attention and realized that the lighting was dimmer and the paneling along the wall looked damaged, like from weapon’s fire perhaps. That didn’t make any sense either. 

“Daiki, what the hell are you doing out here unarmed?” Inoo’s voice startled him, and without any time to react, Inoo had grabbed his arm and then dragged him through the nearest doorway. The door happened to lead into the mess hall but it looked different than the last time he was there. Scars from weapon’s fire were etched into the walls and instead of all the tables and chair neatly in place, most of them had been pushed up against the doors to keep people out. He watched as Hikaru and Keito rushed to prop the tables against the door he’d just came through. 

“What’s going on?” Daiki asked, noting that Hikaru and Keito looked worried and on edge. 

Inoo blinked back. “You don’t remember? Did you hit your head?” 

“Um, yeah actually I did,” he answered. Now he was more confused than before. Was it possible he had jumped through time again somehow? Was this the future now? He didn’t remember ever having to hide away in the mess hall during some sort of attack. 

“Yabu, you should check Daiki’s head,” Inoo said, calling out over his shoulder. 

“What’s the problem?” Yabu asked, walking over with a medical tricorder in his hand, ready to examine his patient. 

Daiki took a confused step back. As a hologram, Yabu shouldn’t be able to exist anywhere on the ship that didn’t have holo-emitters installed. There would be nothing to project his program. So he was always relegated to either sickbay or the holodeck because the ship didn’t have the parts necessary to install them anywhere else. Seeing him here didn’t make any sense. 

“Why are you here?” he asked bluntly.

“To treat the wounded while we come up with a plan to take back the ship,” Yabu answered with a reassuring smile accentuating his high cheekbones. But a moment later, it was replaced with a look of concern as he got the readings from his tricorder. “Why am I picking up tachyon particles? Have you been time traveling?” 

“…possibly,” Daiki answered. He tried to explain best he could what was going on and then he asked Yabu how he was able to exist in the mess hall. The doctor just casually mentioned a portable emitter device they’d picked up from a planet a while back. Daiki wanted to ask more questions, but he probably shouldn’t know too much about the future. 

“So what are we going to do?” Hikaru asked, and for the first time Daiki noticed that he was injured. Yabu had done his best to patch him up but it looked like he needed access to the medical equipment in sickbay to fully recover. “We have problems to deal with here but we also need to get this Daiki back to whatever time period he came from.” 

The small group began discussing possibilities and theories, but Daiki said nothing. He’d gotten himself into this mess _somehow_ because he hadn’t been able to make a decision. He’d hesitated at the wrong moment and he couldn’t do anything. Should he even go back if his crewmates couldn’t rely on him? 

“You’re making that face,” Inoo’s voice interrupted his thoughts, and Daiki had no time to react as Inoo pulled him aside. 

“What face?”

“The one where smoke starts coming from your ears for thinking too hard,” Inoo joked. Hikaru, Keito, and Yabu were still deeply engrossed in their conversation and not paying attention to the two of them. 

“I feel like I’m a failure,” Daiki admitted seriously, not letting his voice rise above a whisper as if putting it into words out loud made it true. “Like I’ve let everyone down. What if joining Starfleet and joining this crew was the wrong decision?” 

“Whoa, one bout of time traveling and you’re already having an existential crisis. They shoulda warned us about that in the Academy.” Inoo laughed, a lighthearted laugh that Daiki had learned to appreciate while working together. Inoo always liked to pretend that he wasn’t taking things seriously, but he was actually quite diligent when it came to his work. And cheering people up. 

“I froze,” Daiki continued. “I couldn’t do anything.” 

Suddenly Inoo’s hand was on his forehead, cold fingers making Daiki wince. 

“Um, what are you doing?” he asked. 

“Checking for a fever,” Inoo answered with a frivolous tone. “You’re worrying more than Yamada does. That’s not you.” He put on a smile but Daiki knew Inoo better than that. He was hiding worry himself. Worry for the ship’s current situation, worry for Daiki too. 

“But—”

“I mean it,” Inoo cut him off. “Yeah, your inability to make quick decisions is annoying sometimes, especially when we’re picking a holodeck program to play, but it also means you consider all the possibilities. You look at things no one else considers.” 

Daiki frowned. Just because Inoo said them didn’t make the words true.

“Although, I guess you’re not considering _all_ the possibilities,” Inoo continued, looking infuriatingly smug. “Because obviously you did manage to make the right decision in the past or we wouldn’t be here now.” 

Daiki narrowed his eyes. “How do you know this isn’t some hallucination I’m having as I’m dying?” 

“In that case, your hallucination sucks,” Inoo said. “I should be eating a big bowl of rice right now instead of having to help recover the ship from evil invaders trying to kill us.” 

Daiki was silent as he thought it over. Inoo gave him a gentle pat on the shoulder before he returned to the strategizing group again. The rules of time travel were confusing and made his head hurt more than it already was. There were things like alternate universes and timelines to consider. He rubbed the part of his head that he’d hit before. 

He should stop overthinking it. That was the whole problem, wasn’t it? And the solution was simple. 

Just. Stop. Thinking.

“Okay Daiki,” Yabu called out, gesturing for him to return. “I think the solution is for you to hit your head again.” 

“Huh?” 

“Preferably in engineering,” Yabu continued with an earnest nod. 

“Is that your professional medical opinion?” Daiki gave Yabu the same skeptical look he gave Inoo whenever he concocted up a weird dish and claimed it was actually edible. 

“Yep.” 

Daiki didn’t like the sound of that plan. In fact, it sounded like one of the worst ideas he’d ever heard. But he was done second-guessing things for now. He had to stick to one plan if he wanted to get back to his own time period. He took a deep breath as he accepted it. No turning back now. 

“Then I’m going back to engineering,” he declared. There was a tiny bit of confidence trickling back inside him. He thought back to a time when he _did_ feel more confident with his decisions, a time before the pressure of being the chief engineer—the _only_ engineer of this little ship—piled up and got to him. Somewhere along the way, he’d forgotten what that felt like. 

“Take a phaser with you,” Hikaru said, putting the weapon in his hands. “I don’t know anything about how you travel through time but you don’t want to run into what we’re facing right now.” Keito stood beside him, nodding in agreement and looking worried. 

“I’ll be careful,” he said. They all worked to unblock the doors long enough for Daiki to slip through. He heard Inoo call out a “good luck!” as he dashed off down the corridor. 

There were three different routes to get back to engineering from his current position but he didn’t fret over it. He picked the quickest one and ignored the reasons to take alternative routes that were bouncing around in his head. He tried to move as quietly as possible, glancing over his shoulder every now and then. When he thought he heard someone, he ducked around the corner and waited. He bit his lip so hard while trying not to breathe that it almost started bleeding. But a moment passed and he felt safe to move again. The further he got, the less it looked like a ship under siege. He wondered if he’d time traveled once again and what time period would it be. 

He didn’t want to be in a different time again. He just wanted to be back where he belonged. He wanted to be back in engineering, fixing the engines so that he could get the ship out of harm’s way. Feeling frantic, he picked up the pace, now full-out running down the corridor. He could see the door to engineering up ahead. He sprinted to get there, just figuring he could worry about what to do when he got inside. 

But as he rushed in, he tripped over his feet and lost his balance. _Idiot_ , he chided himself as he scrambled to regain his balance. Rushing into things seemed to be just as bad as being frozen with inaction. He reached out to grab a console but it was too little, too late. He felt his head collide with something as he crashed to the ground. As he lost consciousness, he reminded himself that this is what Yabu said he was supposed to do anyway. 

When he opened his eyes, the ceiling of engineering was back to the way it was when he’d hit his head the first time. Everything was bathed in the red glow of the emergency lights again. 

“ _Daiki, Daiki, respond!_ ” Yamada’s voice came through the comm this time, frantic that he hadn’t answered. “ _Are you okay? We’ve got to try to break free before the next shockwave hits._ ” 

It seemed like he was back in the proper time.

“Y-yeah, I’m here,” Daiki answered. He rubbed the sore spot on his head while he looked at the nearest console. It was damaged from the power surge earlier, but still functioning. “I’m going to get the engines back online now.” 

He let his fingers dance across the buttons without worrying whether this solution was the right one. He was working on instinct alone. No freezing up. Fix the problem, think about the consequences afterwards. 

The engines roared back to life and he breathed a heavy sigh of relief. “Try it now!” he practically shouted through the comm. He kept the channel open and listened as Yuto and Yamada gave orders to get them as far away as possible. Once they were declared safe, Daiki felt relief wash over him even though the pain in his head was throbbing now. 

“Hey, now that we’re out of danger,” Daiki said, “I’m going to sickbay.” He let them know so no one would wonder why he’d abandoned his post during the post-crisis cleanup. 

Yabu was busy picking up his stock of medical supplies from the floor when Daiki walked in. “Ah! Daiki!” Yabu called out with his arms full of vials of medicines. “Did you get hurt during all the commotion? What’s the problem?” 

“You’re stuck here in sickbay, aren’t you?” 

Yabu dumped the vials onto the nearest bed and grabbed the nearest medical tricorder. “Of course I am,” he answered cheerfully. “The ship isn’t equipped with holo-emitters for me to freely wander around. Did you hit your head?” 

“Actually yes, I did. Twice. I think,” Daiki answered. He sat down on an empty bed and let Yabu examine him. “You’re not picking up any tachyon particles are you?” 

“Nope,” Yabu said without even glancing up from his readings. “Should I be?”

“Hopefully not.”

The doors to sickbay opened and Inoo walked in. “I just came to check on you. Did you get hurt?” 

“Other than a mild concussion, he seems fine,” Yabu answered. “I’ll give you something for the headache…” he trailed off and looked around the room. “If I can find where I put that medicine…” 

“I was time traveling,” Daiki explained and turned to Inoo. “You actually gave me some pretty good advice in the future.” 

Inoo grinned. “You must have hit your head _really_ hard.” 

Yabu rummaged through his pile of medicine vials. “I didn’t find anything out of the ordinary when I scanned you. It was just a normal concussion. You were probably just dreaming.” 

“It didn’t feel like a dream,” Daiki said, but he was too tired to really argue. In the end, it didn’t really matter if they believed him or not. All he wanted to do was go back to his room and sleep. Or maybe he could eat something. He was kind of hungry. 

_No,_ he mentally berated himself. He would not fall into this trap of debating all of his options again. When he got back to his room, he’d decide what to do then and he’d pick whatever he wanted most. 

“Take care of yourself,” Inoo said with a smile. “I’m going back to help with repairs.” 

Once Yabu injected him with the medicine, he let Daiki go. The pain was gone and the ship wasn’t in danger. Now that he had more time to think about it, he figured that his experience probably _had_ just been a dream. It was all sort of fading the more that he thought about it. 

His fingers brushed against the sore spot on his head even though it didn’t hurt anymore. 

Maybe it was best if he’d just focus on the present now. Forget the past, ignore the future. Take things one step at a time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The obligatory time travel episode. I'm not exactly sure what tachyon particles are but they seem to always show up when time travel is involved ^_^


	6. Episode 6: Keito's Day

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Keito's life is hard. Even in space.
> 
> Terms to know: **Jefferies tubes** , the tubes throughout the ship which allow the crew to access the inner part of the ship. They're like crawling around through air ducts only with a little more leg room ^_^
> 
> Very important to note that the green slime is this episode is NOT the same green slime from episode three. It's just a coincidence.

Sometimes Keito felt like he was invisible. Like whenever he was running to catch the turbolift but the doors closed right before he got there. Or whenever someone snagged the last piece of dessert in the mess hall right before he even had a chance. He never said anything, and the crew never did anything intentionally, but it did make him feel a bit lonely sometimes. 

But for the most part, he’d come to accept his invisibility. Embrace it even. 

It was something that came in handy when work on the Bridge was slow. His position as communications officer wasn’t really anything exciting. The job was mostly an outdated and useless one as the ship’s automatic universal translator did most of the work for him. So a lot of the time, he just listened to music in his headphones and pretended to look busy. No one suspected anything except for Yuto and Yamada, but despite the commander’s strict adherence to all Federation regulations, he never scolded him for it. He suspected Yuto had something to do with that.

Today, at his post, Keito was listening to rock music from Earth’s late twentieth century. Something with a dark and broody vibe since he was kind of annoyed about missing the last piece of pie at lunch earlier. Pie was one of the few things Inoo could make that wasn’t completely stomach-churning. 

He focused on the song’s lyrics as he stared intently as his computer screen. He had some translation work up there, but he wasn’t in any rush to finish it. The language was from a planet they’d stopped at months ago, and unless they turned around, he wouldn’t have a need to use it any time soon. 

A weird _thump_ suddenly caught his attention. It didn’t fit with the rhythm of the song and he couldn’t remember hearing it before. He turned to look at the rest of the crew on the bridge but was startled to find everyone slumped over and unconscious. 

_Hopefully_ just unconscious. 

Keito wrenched his headphones off and dashed over to where Yamada and Yuto had both slipped out of their chairs and fallen to the floor. He checked their pulses and was relieved that they both seemed okay. Next he checked Hikaru’s and Inoo’s as well. Everyone seemed to be unharmed except that they were all unconscious now. 

“Computer, what the heck just happened?” He wished he’d been paying more attention earlier. 

The familiar computerized voice of the ship answered him in its usual calm tone. _“The ship was hit with a sonic resonance pulse.”_

“From where?” Keito continued while he rearranged the bridge crew into more comfortable positions. Hikaru would definitely get a stiff neck from the way he was lying currently. And he’d probably complain a lot about it next time they played video games together. 

_“The pulse originated from the ship located next to the port bow,”_ came the calm response. 

“A ship?” he muttered under his breath. He climbed over Inoo to check the scanner. Sure enough, there was another spaceship right beside theirs. He didn’t recognize it, so it had to be from an alien species they’d never met before. 

_“Warning: unauthorized transporter activity,”_ the computer voice interrupted his thoughts. 

“We’ve got intruders,” Keito said out loud. He could feel the blood drain from his face. How was he supposed to deal with this on his own? He must have been the only one to escape being knocked out because he’d been wearing his headphones at the time. Just his luck, of course. 

He checked the scanner to get a better idea of the situation. It looked like there were five hostiles that had just beamed on board. At the moment, they were near the cargo bay but he was sure they’d be moving to the bridge soon enough. Which meant he needed to _move._ And quickly.

Panic coursed through his body. He didn’t even have any weapons with him. 

He felt so alone. 

And that’s when he remembered Yabu was probably still okay. “Computer, is the EMH still working?” 

_“The Emergency Medical Hologram is still functioning at peak efficiency.”_

“Great,” Keito opened a channel to Yabu. “Hey Yabu, um I know this is kinda sudden, but I’m going to use an emergency transport to send the whole crew to you.” 

_“What’s the medical emergency?”_ he answered. _“Or are we just having a party? Did I forget someone’s birthday again?”_

Keito quickly explained the situation while he sent everyone to sickbay where he hoped they would be safe. He didn’t know what the intruders would do; whether they’d just leave the crew unconscious or kill them off while they were easy targets. At least Yabu could put the room into a quarantine that would hopefully keep the bad guys out. 

_“I’ve got them all,”_ Yabu confirmed. _“But what are you going to do?”_

“I guess I’m going to… protect the ship,” Keito answered. He mustered up all the confidence he could fake into his voice, even though his hands were shaking. “Just try to wake up the rest of the crew, okay?” 

_“Good luck!”_

Keito took a deep breath while he checked the scanners again. The group of five had split up and were now traveling through the ship alone. Probably looking for the crew while they made their way to the bridge. He needed to move quickly. 

There was a small weapons locker just down the hallway that he could use. While he slung a phaser rifle over his shoulder, he modified his tricorder to track the intruders as they moved about the ship. He wondered what he should do first. Just go stun each one he could find with his phaser? That would work if he could catch them by surprise, but if they had their own weapons—and surely they must—there was a chance he could get hurt or killed too. And then who would save the ship? 

“What am I going to do?” he muttered out loud as he pressed his forehead against the wall. He much preferred his quiet job of doing nothing on the bridge. Or even better, he wished he could be playing video games with Hikaru instead. That was a low-risk activity. 

“Video games,” he repeated, suddenly standing up straight. “That’s it!” Maybe if he just thought of this like a video game… 

“Gotta go take out bad guys and reach the next level,” he said. He turned to run to the nearest replicator. “I’m going to need some supplies.” 

Once he’d gathered everything he thought he needed, he opened the small doorway to the Jefferies tube. He usually hated crawling around in the small tube-like maintenance tunnels that spanned the ship, but it was necessary this time. It would be the best way to sneak around the ship and set up his traps. 

His first stop was the turbolift. One of the intruders was heading right towards it according to his scans, so he had to work fast. 

“Level one: sticky feet,” he muttered to himself as he worked to set up the first trap. Pretending it was a video game made him feel a bit calmer, a bit more in control. Once the doors of the turbolift opened, he grabbed his bucket of superglue and poured it out on the floor, taking care to avoid splashing it on his own shoes. He’d replicated a clear version so the intruder hopefully wouldn’t notice before he stepped inside. It smelled kind of bad but hopefully that wouldn’t matter either. As he completed the setup, he slipped around the corner out of sight just in time. 

The intruder was tall, taller than Yuto even, and twice as wide. If they were doing hand-to-hand combat, Keito was sure he’d lose in a second. Especially since the man was wearing some sort of body armor and carrying a large weapon. Keito held his breath as he waited, hoping to hear the sound of an angry yell at any moment. 

“What the hell?” the intruder exclaimed suddenly.

While the guy was distracted trying to get his shoes free, Keito whirled out from his hiding spot and fired his phaser rifle. The maximum stun setting should have him out for a while. But just in case, Keito carefully reached over the body and handcuffed him. 

He was surprised that his first plan had worked. But it felt nice, actually, to succeed. 

“One down, four to go,” Keito whispered as he climbed back inside the Jefferies tube. He paused long enough to check where the nearest intruder was and then started heading that way, dragging his supplies along with him. It was kind of difficult to navigate the tiny space with all the equipment he’d haphazardly thrown into a bag, but he managed somehow. He paused though at every unexpected clang of metal on metal, hoping no one could hear him coming. Video games taught him a lot of things, but not exactly how to move stealthily. Having a cardboard box to sneak around under would be fun, but not very practical.

He arrived at his destination and quickly sprang into action. The first thing was to tie some rope up in just the right way so that it would move when the doors automatically opened. Once that was secure, he reached into his bag for the rest of his materials. But he immediately realized he was missing one crucial part. It had probably fallen out somewhere in transit while he was trying to move fast. With panic seeping in, he spun around to look for the nearest replicator to get a replacement. The intruder would be there any moment and he didn’t want to face him head on. 

Once he had the last thing he needed, he threw the rest of the trap together with shaky hands and hid away. “Level two: Buckets of… something,” Keito trailed off as he tried to think of a good name. But he didn’t have time to finish his thought as the intruder walked in through the door. The movement from the door set his trap into motion. 

The rope was attached to a small metal bucket which tilted forward to spill the contents inside onto the intruder. 

The man yelped in shock as a pile of chalkboard erasers rained down on him. A cloud of white dust engulfed him. Keito took his chance with the distraction and stunned this guy with his phaser too. 

“Yessss,” Keito hissed quietly and clenched his fists in triumph. “Time to level up.” 

With the unconscious intruder secure, Keito hopped back into the Jefferies tube, checking first to make sure the last of his supplies were still in his bag this time. He crawled deeper into the ship, ready to find another good spot to set his next trap. It was weird but he was actually beginning to enjoy this. Just a tiny bit. 

It sure beat a long shift on the bridge pretending to be busy. 

The next intruder was heading for engineering and Keito was beginning to feel very confident. Because Keito knew the ship so well, he reached the engine room first. Wasting no time, Keito climbed to the upper level of the room and watched from above for the guy to get to the right spot. He was going to go simple with this one.

“Level three: Hand to… rope combat? Gosh, why is it so hard coming up with these names? Where’s Hikaru when I need a witty title?” he muttered so quietly he could barely hear his own voice.

As the man walked into engineering, he surveyed his surroundings and looked for the controls. Keito had his rope net in hand, waiting for their positions to line up perfectly. He counted under his breath until the unsuspecting intruder was directly underneath, and then he dropped the net. 

It landed in the right place but it didn’t have the effect Keito had hoped for. Instead of being distracted, the man let out an enraged yell and quickly untangled himself from the net. 

“Crap.” Keito rushed to get his phaser rifle before the guy could climb up there to attack him. But in his sudden panicked state, he dropped his weapon. “Crap, crap, crap.” The intruder was getting closer every second and he needed to improvise. He stuck his hands in his pockets. 

Keito’s eyes widened in a combination of panic as the man got even closer and also shock that he actually had something in his pockets. He’d forgotten about the conversation he’d had with Yamada earlier that morning: old Earth games. Yamada had been researching some and had discovered the game of marbles, which he had given to Keito at the beginning of his shift. Keito had stuck them in his pocket to look at later when he was done with work. 

He tossed the shiny marbles out, listening to the clicking and clunking sounds as they scattered across the floor. It was just enough distraction to keep the man from firing his weapon that Keito had time to grab his phaser rifle again. Keito sighed in major relief once his opponent was out cold on the floor surrounded by all the shiny marbles. 

“Level three cleared,” Keito said. “That was a tough one.” 

There were only two more intruders left to incapacitate and Keito was out of supplies. He needed to get moving again. According to his scanner, the nearest intruder was close to astrometrics. Keito took a shortcut Inoo had once shown him and managed to arrive ahead of the intruder. He needed to put together another trap, but he had used up the last of his supplies in engineering. And his pockets were empty now too.

That’s when he spotted a jar of green slime over by Takaki’s workstation. He had no idea what it was, but it would work good enough in a pinch. Another check of the scanner and then Keito positioned himself by the door for his opportunity. 

“Level four: Slimey… something…” He frowned as he failed to come up with another level name. When the door opened, Keito sprang into action and dumped the slime all over the guy. 

“What’s this sticky stuff!!” the guy exclaimed right before Keito whipped his phaser rifle out and stunned him. 

“That went better than expected,” Keito noted as he tied that one up too. “Only one more left.” 

He checked the scanner and realized that the last intruder was almost to the bridge. And if Keito let him get there, he might not have enough time to stop the guy before he gained control of their ship. He absolutely couldn’t let that happen. He couldn’t let the crew down. 

He just needed one more trap. The mess hall was on his way to the bridge. And thinking about food and video games gave him an idea. A weird and dumb idea. But it just might work. 

Keito slipped into the mess hall and replicated what he needed and then sprinted off down the corridor towards the bridge. With only one left, he didn’t have to crawl around and pretend to be stealthy anymore. Not until he got close anyway. It was a good thing Keito was good at blending into the background because there wasn’t any really decent places to hide once he’d set up his final trap. 

“Level five,” he paused as he tried to think of something. “…….oh I got nothing,” he muttered, finally giving up on naming his traps. He held his breath as the last guy rounded the corner and came into sight. He was the biggest and scariest-looking of all the intruders. Keito bit his lip while he waited to see if he’d fall for the distraction. He sincerely hoped he did because Keito didn’t think he stood a chance against this last guy otherwise. 

The man stopped in the middle of the hallway and looked down at what was on the floor blocking his path. It was a tiny cutely-decorated cake, resting innocently on a plate. 

“Cake?” the guy said, temporarily confused by the appearance of food. 

“The cake is a lie!” Keito shouted and jumped out from his hiding spot. The man, disoriented by the weirdness of the whole situation, didn’t have time to react before Keito stunned him. He fell forward and landed face down in the cake, smushing it into an unrecognizable mess. 

“Yes!” Keito cheered as he jumped up and down in excitement. “I won!” He opened a channel to contact Yabu. “Hey, I’ve managed to incapacitate all the intruders. How’s the crew?” 

_“They’re just waking up now. Looks like there’s no permanent damage to anyone.”_

“Great,” Keito answered as he tied up the last guy with the last of his rope, making sure he made the knots tight enough just in case. He stepped back and smiled, feeling very happy that he had been able to rescue the ship before anything bad happened. 

***

“Why is this one not wearing shoes?” Daiki asked. 

“And this one is covered in some sort of white powder?” Chinen added. “What is that, chalkboard dust?” 

“Hey, is that my green slime I was keeping?” Takaki exclaimed. 

“Why the heck were you keeping green slime?” Hikaru asked Takaki, giving him a concerned side-eye. 

“For… reasons…” Takaki was suddenly more interested in the carpet than the incapacitated guys who’d tried to steal their ship. 

“This one has… cake icing on his face?” Inoo said, looking closer at the unconscious intruder. Then Inoo stuck his finger in the icing and licked it. “Yep, that’s cake icing.” 

“Don’t eat that,” Yamada scolded. 

“In celebration, I will make a whole pie just for you,” Inoo said, giving Keito a thumbs up.

Yuto clapped Keito’s shoulder and smiled brightly. “You did an excellent job saving us. We’ll just send these guys back to their ship and get back to work. Sorry we missed all the fun.” 

“Yeah,” Keito agreed. “Sorry you missed it.” 

Of course, Keito thought, it would have been nice for the crew to see him in action. But in the end, he realized it didn’t matter to him. Looking back, it had been fun, but every video game came to an end eventually. Time to get back to reality and to his quiet station on the Bridge. Back where he was invisible.

But being invisible wasn’t so bad. As he sat down in his chair, he put his headphones on and turned up his music. Maybe he’d win a few more rounds next time he and Hikaru played video games.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sort of very vaguely inspired by Voyager's "Macrocosm" episode and The Next Generation's episode "Starship Mine." The episode title comes from the Next Generation episode "Data's Day" but that's the only similarity really.


	7. Episode 7: Kids at Heart

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was the idea that inspired the whole fic ^_^ It was very obviously inspired by the Next Generation episode "Rascals."

“Do you ever think Chinen might be a robot?” Inoo mused out loud as he picked up his backpack.

No one really seemed fazed by the random question. Inoo was just killing time with small talk as the six of them waited on the transporter pad to be beamed back to the ship. Chinen and Takaki had stayed behind on the ship while the rest of them had beamed down to the planet for a diplomatic mission. Yuto had volunteered the crew to act as a neutral party between two alien species that needed help making peace with each other. Now that they had talked to one side, they were supposed to go meet with the other. 

“Why do you think he’s a robot?” Daiki asked, always the one most willing to play along with Inoo’s weird conversation topics. 

“Well, he’s good at everything. And I’ve never seen him sleep. _And_ he’s tiny and compact, you know, like an appliance.” 

“He’s not good at _everything_ ,” Yamada scoffed. He helped Keito readjust his backpack full of gifts from the diplomatic party. 

“Takaki told me that once when they were travelling, they met some circus acrobats who were so impressed with Chinen’s gymnastic skills that they offered him a job,” Hikaru said. 

“Wow, for real?” Yuto asked, looking impressed. 

“I bet Chinen is amazing at the flying trapeze,” Keito added, mostly as a comment to himself.

“When we get back to the ship, let’s put Operation: RoboChinen into action,” Inoo said, looking so excited that he was bouncing on his toes. 

Yuto regretfully shook his head. “Not when we have work to do,” he said. “We’re supposed to meet up with the other diplomats very soon. Gotta get things all together before they arrive.” 

“We need to go over security protocols as soon as we get back,” Yamada said to Inoo who sighed in response. 

“Fine, fine,” Inoo agreed. “This diplomatic mission is gonna be suuuuper boring.” 

***

Takaki glanced over at Chinen who was completely absorbed in his work monitoring the transporter controls. His eyes lingered a little longer than they probably should, but Takaki couldn’t help it. Watching Chinen work had always fascinated him. He was precise in every movement, like he didn’t even have to think about what to do. 

“We have a problem,” Chinen said, looking up which made Takaki quickly turn his attention back to his own console. 

“What’s that?” 

“An ion storm just developed and is headed our way,” Chinen explained, pointing to the display on the small screen. “It’ll interfere with the transporter.” 

“Should I move the ship?” They had the ship on autopilot in orbit but Takaki could reroute the helm controls to his console if necessary. If he had the chance to pilot the ship, he was definitely going to rub that in Hikaru’s face later. 

“Let me talk to Yuto first,” Chinen answered. He opened a communication link to the planet. “Hey Captain, we may have to delay the transport.” He quickly explained the situation to them and waited for Yuto’s response. 

_“I know it’s a risk,”_ Yuto said, _“but we’re on a tight schedule. We don’t have time to wait for the storm to pass. Just go ahead and beam us up.”_

Takaki watched Chinen frown as he considered all the potential ways that things could go wrong. “Fine,” he answered with a sigh. “Stand by for transport.” 

“You got this,” Takaki encouraged him because he looked like he needed it. 

Chinen just nodded as his fingers swept over the transporter controls. Right as he engaged the transporter, they were both thrown off balance as the storm hit the ship. It had moved faster than expected. While Chinen worried with the transporter, Takaki checked for damage to the ship. Everything looked okay according to his readings, but when he looked over to Chinen, he realized that things weren’t going that smoothly. 

“The patterns aren’t stable,” Chinen said. Outwardly he looked calm as he continued to adjust the controls, but Takaki knew him well enough to tell that he wasn’t. “There’s too much interference with the storm. I’m trying to compensate.” 

Takaki wished there was something he could do to help, but his job was to make sure the ship stayed together in one piece while they weathered the storm. 

“Uh-oh.” That one word from Chinen’s mouth made Takaki look up from the controls again. He knew it was bad from the tone of his voice. 

“Uh-oh,” Takaki repeated when he saw the crew standing on the transporter pad. 

They had made it back in one piece but there was something very different about the crew than when they left. Something he wasn’t sure was even possible. 

They were all young children. 

“Why is Yama-chan taller than me?” Yuto said but his voice came out with a cute little lisp. 

“The bigger question is: why are we all children??” Hikaru asked. He looked to be about six or seven at the oldest while the rest of them looked younger, but no younger than probably three or four years old. 

“Um… oops?” Takaki said and looked to Chinen for an explanation. 

Chinen however looked slightly terrified at the group of young children before him. He was at a loss for words as the crew stared back at him with looks of confusion on their faces. Keito fell over because his backpack was too heavy for his small body, and then started crying. 

“Don’t cry Keito,” Takaki said and rushed over to pick him up. “We’ll fix this. Somehow.” 

“This is bad,” Yamada said. “We’re supposed to meet with the diplomats soon. We can’t meet them like this. They’re not going to take a four year old captain seriously.” He looked over to Yuto who was poking Daiki’s stomach to make him giggle. 

“I can fix this,” Chinen said. “I think. But the other ship is approaching on my scanners and I need more time.” He looked like he was on the edge of a panic attack. Takaki knew Chinen wasn’t really good with kids, but he hadn’t seen him look that distressed since that time they got lost on the way to the first day of classes at Starfleet Academy. 

Takaki knew he had to do something. “So how about I take everyone and we’ll go see Yabu while Chinen works his magic with the computers and stuff.” He corralled the crew members towards the door, making sure that they all stayed together. 

“Everyone hold hands and no running in the hallway,” he commanded to the rowdy group.

He glanced at Chinen one last time as he exited the room. He was already absorbed in his work again, eyes locked onto the console and eyebrows furrowed together. Takaki wished he could help, but this would have to do for now. 

***

Hikaru thought the ship looked extra strange from the point of view of a seven year old. For one, everything looked _bigger_. He’d never thought about how tall Yabu was until they all walked into sickbay.

Yabu looked down and observed the group of kids in front of him. “Why don’t you guys ever just come visit me to say hi?” 

“Hi?” Takaki said sheepishly. 

Looking a weird mix of annoyed and amused, the holographic doctor went to work examining each one of them. Hikaru instinctively jerked away from the medical tricorder as it swept past his face, narrowly avoiding his nose. He never could sit still as a child. And apparently not as a kid _now_ either. 

It was so weird, he thought, to remember everything—to still keep his adult mind—while he was trapped in the body of his younger self. He considered that he wasn’t tall enough to reach the bottle of Klingon firewhiskey he had stashed away in the back of his closet, but also he wasn’t old enough to drink it anymore either. 

The rest of the crew, however, didn’t seem to be as preoccupied with worry about the negative consequences of this change. Beside him, Yamada and Daiki were gleefully jumping up and down to prove that they were taller than Yuto now. The captain didn’t seem to mind and it was nice to see Yamada loosen up for once. His expression was downright _giddy_ almost. 

“Well,” Yabu said, concluding his scans (with some difficulty because of a squirmy Inoo), “everyone is perfectly fine. Just younger.” 

“I, uh… think we knew that,” Takaki said. 

Yabu cleared his throat for attention to continue. “I’m just speculating, of course, but I think it’s possible that they’ll start to regress to a more child-like mindset the longer they stay like this.” 

This wasn’t really what Hikaru wanted to hear. 

Takaki nodded. “Chinen’s working on it now.” 

“Good,” Yabu answered. He turned to put his tricorder away but discovered that he had an extra weight attached. He looked down to see little three-year-old Keito clinging to his ankle. Hikaru cover his mouth to hide his laughter when Yabu sighed. 

“So Captain,” Takaki began, turning to address Yuto, who was preoccupied with his shoelaces for some reason. “I will try to stall the diplomats for as long as possible and keep the ship running smoothly while you all… take a break I guess.” 

“Don’t forget proper security protocols!” Yamada added quickly, trying to sound as authoritarian as his little young voice could now that the thrill of being tall for his age had started to wear off. He elbowed Inoo. “Remember? The security protocols?” 

“Eh, just tell them not to press any buttons labeled ‘do not touch’ and we should be good,” Inoo said and went back to picking his nose, much to Daiki’s utter disgust. 

Takaki nodded seriously to Inoo’s flippant advice which made Hikaru immediately throw his palm up to his forehead with an exasperated sigh. There was no way Takaki could do this all alone, not while Chinen was preoccupied with figuring out the problem. “So if you’ll just watch the kids for me while I’m busy…” Takaki said to Yabu as he unsubtly inched towards the door. 

“Wait a minute,” Yabu exclaimed as he suddenly realized what was happening. “I’m a doctor, not a babysitter!” 

“Don’t worry,” Takaki called out over his shoulder as he rushed out of the door, “just give them some crayons and coloring books and they’ll be fine.” 

Yabu would have tried to chase after him but young Keito was still attached to his leg. This time Hikaru couldn’t stop himself from laughing out loud as he snuck out the door behind Takaki. 

Takaki didn’t say anything about his presence until they were halfway down the hallway to the turbolift. “And who said I’ll just let a kid run around the ship with me?” he asked with a hint of teasing in his voice, something that Hikaru had gotten used to once they had become friends. 

“Please,” young Hikaru scoffed, “I know you need someone else to help you on the Bridge. And your improv skills suck, so I’ll help you distract the diplomats.” 

Takaki opened his mouth to argue, but then shrugged. He had seemed sort of amused a minute ago, but the look on his face was replaced with a seriousness and uncertainty that hadn’t been there before. Like he had finally realized all of the stuff he had to do alone. 

Well, not completely alone. That’s why Hikaru had tagged along. Even if he wasn’t sure what he could do while he was this young. 

Once they reached the bridge, Hikaru slipped into his usual seat at the helm and transferred some of the ship’s controls to his console. It was frustrating that his fingers were smaller now and unable to reach all the buttons he wanted to. He wiggled in the chair to get more comfortable. As he adjusted, he listened to Takaki open a channel and talk with the other ship that had just arrived. His voice sounded confident, pleasant even, and he seemed to convince the diplomats that there was only a slight delay in meeting with the people on the planet. He couldn’t however persuade them to wait on their ship. They insisted on coming to the _Heisei_ instead. 

Takaki sighed heavily once the call ended. He sat down beside Hikaru and laid his head down on the console. “How do Yuto and Yamada do this stuff all the time?” 

“You’re just not cut out to be a captain,” Hikaru teased, hoping that would force Takaki to find his confidence again. The diplomats would be docking their shuttle in the shuttle bay in a few minutes. 

“Of course not,” Takaki answered. “That’s why Chinen and I are _science_ officers.” 

“Fair point.” 

“And I don’t need a lecture from a kid,” Takaki added and then ruffled Hikaru’s hair like he was just one of Takaki’s nephews that he talked about every now and then. 

Hikaru grimaced at him and tried to fix his hair back in place. At least it had worked somehow. He followed Takaki back to the turbolift, noting the more determined spring in his step. 

***

“This is super boring,” Inoo whispered to Keito who was intensely focused on the picture he was coloring while they were all spread out on the floor. “You’re just coloring inside all the lines. Where’s your sense of art?” 

Keito glared at him and scooted around so he could color in peace. 

“We could always take a nap instead like those kids,” Daiki said, pointing his thumb over to where Yamada and Yuto were fast asleep, cuddling together and oblivious to the world. 

“Why aren’t they dating yet?” Inoo snarked to which Keito just shrugged. 

Daiki tapped his crayons against the carpet. “Hmm… Inoo, are you thinking what I’m thinking?” 

“That this masterpiece belongs in a museum?” Inoo held up the picture he’d been coloring to reveal a mess of scribbled colors melding into one incoherent sight. 

“Uh… I was thinking more along the lines of we all sneak out to see Chinen, but yeah sure, your art can be museum-worthy,” Daiki answered. “A museum of horrors.” He ducked as Inoo threw a crayon at his face.

“Go wake up the lovebirds,” Inoo said to Keito. “Yabu is distracted so we can sneak out. We’re so small he won’t even notice.” 

Keito nodded and quietly crept over to poke Yamada and Yuto while Yabu was in his office looked over medical reports. It wasn’t long before the five of them quietly slipped out of sickbay without Yabu noticing at all. 

“We really shouldn’t be wandering around the ship,” Yamada said. They were struggling to keep up with Yuto who was now skipping happily down the hallway. 

“Oh lighten up,” Daiki complained. “Enjoy being a kid again while you still can. No rules!”

“No rules!” Inoo repeated and raised his fists in the air. 

Keito patted Yamada’s shoulder and smiled in an attempt to reassure him, and Yuto widely waved his arms at him in a gesture that plainly said “follow me.” So Yamada gave up and just went along with everyone else. They piled into astrometrics where Chinen was working, catching him off guard with the sudden appearance of five young children. 

“Hi,” Chinen said, suddenly looking like a deer caught in the headlights. It was so rare to see Chinen looking uncomfortable about a situation. “I’m still working on what went wrong with the transporters. What are you all doing here?” 

“We got bored,” Daiki answered. 

“We wanted to see if you’re a robot,” Inoo added. “It’s very important information.” 

Chinen just looked confused and stared at young Inoo instead of answering. 

“I think you broke him,” Yuto stage-whispered. 

***

The diplomatic delegation only consisted of four people and, at the moment, they were sitting in the mess hall, eating snacks and talking amongst themselves. Hikaru and Takaki were hovering by the kitchen just in case they needed anything. But things had been quiet so far. 

To kill time, Takaki had been rambling to him a story about Chinen, but Hikaru had mostly tuned it out because Takaki talked about Chinen all the time and he felt like he’d probably heard the story before anyway. 

Hikaru finally started paying attention right as Takaki was wrapping up his tale. “…and that’s why we never eat spaghetti on Wednesdays,” he laughed. “Chii will pretend like that’s _not_ the reason, but it totally is. He’s so particular about the weirdest things. You can tell, you know, just by the look on his face. Just the way his eyebrows move. It’s actually really cute.” 

Honestly, Hikaru had no idea what he was talking about, but suddenly things clicked into place. Takaki had a fond look on his face, and he looked like he was a thousand lightyears away just thinking about the memory. It all made sense to Hikaru, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. 

“You’re in love with Chinen, aren’t you?” he said. 

Takaki flinched at the unexpected interruption. “W-what? Why would you think that?” 

Maybe it was just because Hikaru was looking at him from a child’s perspective now but he couldn’t believe he’d never figured it out before. “Because you are,” he shrugged. “You’ve travelled all over the galaxy with him. Don’t you think that means something?”

Hikaru watched as Takaki frowned thinking about his feelings. It looked like Hikaru’s words had sparked some sort of inner war and he was battling it out right now. 

“You should just tell him,” Hikaru said. 

“No I shouldn’t,” Takaki answered immediately. 

Well that wasn’t a denial, Hikaru thought as he suddenly grinned. He had a whole new world of possibilities for teasing Takaki now. “Tell him or I’ll bite you,” he threatened. 

Now Takaki glared at him. “Don’t you dare!” Then he paused a moment. “Wait, you’re going to _bite_ me? Yabu was right, you _do_ start regressing to a child mindset after a while.” 

“I’m just picking it up from you,” Hikaru shot back, but he knew that wasn’t true. That thought ruined Hikaru’s good mood. He definitely didn’t want to start thinking like a kid again. He hoped Chinen would be able to fix things soon. As nice as it would be to have no responsibilities, Hikaru had too many memories of a turbulent childhood to want to go through it all once more.

“I wonder how everyone else is right now,” Takaki said. “Hopefully not giving Yabu a lot of trouble.” 

Hikaru agreed. “Yeah, can you imagine all of them…” he trailed off as he suddenly realized there was something important missing in the mess hall. “Um, where did our visitors go?” 

“Oh shit!” Takaki swore as he jumped up from his seat. “I mean, oh crap!”

“You don’t have to censor yourself in front of me, you idiot,” Hikaru snapped back as he followed Takaki out of the door as fast as his small feet would take him. 

***

Meanwhile in astrometrics, things had gotten a bit more… lively. 

“A robot would be able to break free of those ropes,” young Daiki said to Chinen who was looking furious at the group of children trying to make him miserable. He didn’t know where they even found the rope. This was worse than that one time Chinen had to take care of Takaki’s young nephews. Those kids hadn’t managed to tie him up at least. Of course, that’s because Takaki had been there to rescue him that time. 

“RoboChinen, RoboChinen!” Yuto chanted as he happily bounced up and down. 

Chinen was painfully aware of how much he missed Takaki at the moment. But he didn’t dare call him for help.

The weird celebrating would have continued had it not been for Yamada who suddenly shushed them. He was leaning with his ear up against the door, listening intently to something on the other side. 

Everyone got quiet and rushed over to the door to listen as well, except for Keito who tried to undo the ropes around Chinen even though his hands were tiny and he fumbled with the knots. There were whispered voices but after another minute they faded away as the speakers moved on further down the hallway. 

“Those were the diplomats,” Yamada whispered to Chinen once he was free. “They sounded like they weren’t going to meet with the others to discuss peace. Their plan seems to be to use our ship to start a war with the planet below.” 

“We have to stop them,” Inoo said. He tugged on the sleeve of Chinen’s uniform. “Please, can we go? Can we go?” His eyes shone bright with excitement.

Chinen thought it over. The crew was beginning to sound less and less like adults, the longer they stayed like that. That meant that it might be easier for them to accidentally hurt themselves. But then, of course, he considered that they were more chaotic like this. They had managed to tie him up after all. 

And kids were smart. He had to admit that. 

“Okay,” Chinen nodded. “We’ll take them out by any means necessary. Gather up your toys and let’s go. We’ll find Takaki and Hikaru on the way.” 

***

Takaki didn’t know how to react once they caught up with Chinen and the rest of the young crew. Chinen seemed the same as he always was—specifically, frazzled by having to deal with children—but Takaki couldn’t help but see him in a different light now. Hikaru kept glancing over to him with knowing smirks. 

But Takaki had to put all that aside. Chinen and the kids had come up with a plan while they had been secretly following the not-so-diplomatic diplomats as they travelled around the ship. Once they had all been reunited, they put the plan into action. Takaki waited in the shadows with Chinen and watched the kids do their work.

“Hey Mister! Hey Mister!” Inoo shouted at the closest diplomat as he ran up to the group of them. “Can you help me tie my shoe?” 

“Huh?” They were all caught off guard by the sudden appearance of a kid. “Um, sure kid. But we’re kind of busy.” 

“Of course you are, Mister,” Inoo smiled. It looked innocent on the surface, but the crew knew better. “But it won’t take long. It’s not hard to tie a shoe. Here, let me show you.” He bent down and grabbed the guy’s shoelaces. Before he could protest, Inoo had already tied his shoes together, making it impossible for him to walk fast. 

“Hey!” he exclaimed but Inoo scampered away and out of sight before they could do anything. 

Before the diplomats even had time to figure out what was going on, a whole mess of paper airplanes came flying at the group. “What’s going on?” they said to each other as they tried to swat them all away. 

“Haha! Bull’s-eye!” Yuto cheered as one of his paper airplanes hit one of them in the eye. 

That’s when Yamada rushed forward and pushed the guy with the tied shoelaces. “Tag, you’re it!” he shouted and then dashed away. The man lost his balance and fell over onto the guy who was clutching his eyes. 

The other two looked around warily, wondering what was going to happen next. So of course that’s when Daiki took all the rope he had and lassoed the remaining guys like he was in a rodeo. “Woohoo!” he shouted as he tightened the rope. In a panic now, they still tried to run away, but one of them realized that he had an extra weight attached to his leg. He looked down to see Keito hugging his ankle while also attaching an emergency transporter beacon to his leg. They had been so distracted, they hadn’t noticed Keito sneak around and put beacons on each person’s leg. 

Keito let go and smiled brightly at them as the transporter activated and sent them directly back to their ship. 

“That worked out surprisingly well,” Takaki said as he and Chinen stepped out of their hiding place. A few commands entered into the computer and the diplomat’s abandoned shuttle was released back out into space. “Good job Keito,” Takaki said, lifting the young Keito up to give him a hug. 

“Hey, what about the rest of us?” Daiki complained. 

“Everyone did great,” Takaki smiled, and affectionately ruffled all the children’s hair while they laughed happily together.

“How is he so good with them when they all tied me to a chair?” Chinen muttered. 

“Probably because they’re all the same age mentally,” Hikaru answered him unexpectedly, making Chinen jump. 

“And what about you?”

Hikaru shrugged. “I’m mature for my age.” 

Takaki turned and smiled at Chinen. But the conversation he’d had with Hikaru earlier kept rattling around in his brain. Did he really love Chinen, his best friend since he was old enough to remember? He didn’t know. Maybe Hikaru was right, maybe he was wrong. 

All Takaki knew absolutely was that Chinen was important to him. 

“How about you take the kids and contact the people on the planet about what happened, and I’ll finish up my calculations?” Chinen said, taking charge of the situation finally with his usual flair. That was the Chinen he knew, the one who faced challenges head on without wavering. “I’m so close to being able to reverse the transporter accident.” 

“We should probably tell Yabu not to worry either,” Hikaru added. 

“He probably hasn’t noticed we’re gone,” Yamada shrugged.

Takaki agreed and lead the kids away to take care of things. He threw one last glance over his shoulder to Chinen who was already heading down the corridor in the other direction. He had a lot of things to think about.

***

In the end, Chinen was able to restore everyone to their proper ages and Yuto managed to settle things between the two quarrelling species after he had explained everything that had happened. Now that the whole thing was over, they were ready to continue their explorations.

Inoo leaned against Chinen’s station on the bridge with a grin. “I’ve decided you’re not a robot,” he announced.

“Thanks…?” Chinen answered, still looking confused. 

“If you were a robot, you would have been a better babysitter,” Inoo explained. 

Yuto interrupted from where he was sitting, “Well Yabu is _technically_ a kind of robot, and he was a horrible babysitter.” 

Inoo narrowed his eyes. “Good point.” He walked back over to his own post. “I’m watching you.” 

Chinen just shrugged and went back to checking his star charts.

The whole crew was gathered on the Bridge, even technically Yabu whose face was on a screen so that he could see and hear what was going on. Yuto had been seated comfortably in his captain chair, but he stood up to address the crew. 

“So we’ve had a lot of weird things happen lately,” he began. “And I know it’s tough being so far away from Starfleet and our friends and families. But I just want to say that you’re all doing an excellent job.” He walked around the Bridge, pausing to make eye contact with each member of his crew. “I couldn’t ask for a better crew than you all. Let’s do our best as we continue to explore uncharted territory.” 

Yuto sat back down in his seat as he concluded his short little speech. “Hikaru, chart a course. Let’s see what else we can find out here.” 

The crew got right to work, business as usual.

“What do you think we’ll discover?” Yamada asked quietly.

“Something good,” Yuto smiled.

**Author's Note:**

> The adventures of Captain Yuto and his crew will continue~
> 
> Because I was so indecisive about story ideas, I didn't have a chance to write all of the episodes I had originally planned. So this story is essentially "season one" of their adventures. I plan to write a separate "season two" later to continue the rest. It will take some time, but please check it out if you enjoyed this story! 
> 
> I'd like to say thank you to all the people who cheered me on while I was writing this. But most especially, a million thank yous to Emily. Without her, I would have given up on the whole thing. Thank you, Emily, for helping me with the problem spots and encouraging me to keep writing ^_^
> 
> As always, kudos and comments are welcome and very much appreciated. Thank you for reading!


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